Pakistan goes in for course-correction in its relations with America

Jammu: What is becoming clear to Pakistan that the US is very crucial in its international relations , economic stability and military to military relations , in fact Washington is a big player in the whole of South Asia.

After over a month of anti-Us campaign launched by Imran Khan, now the ousted Prime Minister through a parliamentary vote last week , Pakistan has started undertaking a course-correction without disturbing its equations with its iron brother China.

On the foreign policy front, Shehbaz Sharif , the new prime minister of Pakistan inherited many challenges and the biggest of them being to revive the relations with Washington which his immediate predecessor Imran Khan had led astray. Not only that , his challenge became bigger as Khan is continuing with its anti-American campaign with an eye on the votes in the elections, which in any case would be held before the year-end .

Soon after his election as PM, Sharif in his first speech in the National Assembly on Sundayfirst spoke of ties with China , and China-Pakistan Economic Corridor .

It was a strategic movefor he wanted to assureBeijing and also Pakistanis that the relationship with China was of utmost importancefor Islamabad , andnext he picked up Saudi Arabia and other gulf countries , and then came the turn of America.

As a businessman, Sharif knew that Washington was critical to the economy of his country . Again, he stressed that his government wanted good relations with America , but added with extra emphasis , “ we want these relations as equals”.

It was both a snub to Imran Khan, who had accused Sharif and his colleagues in the coalition that ousted PTI chief from PM’s office of being “ traitors”. This has become a fashion and this comes naturally to autocrats to portray themselves as better nationalists than others. Dubbing the dissidents and opponents as foreign agents, or traitors is the politics that they see for their survival and vote bank.

America has reflected very positively on its relationship with Pakistan , while taking care of the fact that it doesn’t talk about the transition that has taken place in Islamabad . Americans know Pakistan far better than many other countries for they have been instrumental in adding Pakistan ever since the country was carved out as a new nation in 1947.

Thereafter, they happened to know the ins and outs of Pakistan’s civilian and the military leadership .They have spoken of strategic relationship with Pakistan and also admitted that the country has fought terrorism within its own soil. It is important for America to keep Pakistan in good humour , not only because to have its own interests served , but also because it doesn’t want Afghanistan to revert to the days of pre—9/11 dark era .

This offers a strategic overview that how America will play its ball in Pakistani court where China is a big competitor , the signs that have emerged in the first three-four days of Sharif government is that it would like to have friendly relations with all the countries in west as also with China and Islamic world. This change may help Pakistan in long run, though no one knows that how long this government will last .

Note: This is a news analysis