KARACHI: Prime Minister Imran Khan has expressed his desire to have a proper relationship with the United States akin to Islamabad’s ties with Beijing rather than the one where Pakistan is treated like a “hired gun”.

The prime minister, in his first interview to The Washington Post after assuming office, said: “I would never want to have a relationship where Pakistan is treated like a hired gun — given money to fight someone else’s war. It not only cost us human lives, devastation of our tribal areas, but it also cost us our dignity.”

When asked to elaborate on the ideal nature of relationship that he would like to have with Washington, Mr Khan said: “For instance, our relationship with China is not one-dimensional. It’s a trade relationship between two countries. We want a similar relationship with the US.”

PM says he will never want to have a relationship where Pakistan is treated like ‘a hired gun’

The prime minister explained that the country was not “hedging” towards China, but it was rather Washington’s attitude that had brought a change in the Pakistan-US relationship. He clarified that disagreeing with US policies did not equate to him being “anti-American” when he was asked why he harboured “anti-US sentiments”. “This is a very imperialistic approach: you’re either with me or against me,” he observed.

Asked if he wanted relations between Pakistan and the US to “warm up”, the prime minister responded: “Who would not want to be friends with a superpower?”

Afghan peace talks

Discussing his recent spat with US President Donald Trump, PM Khan clarified that it was not a “Twitter war, it was just setting the record right”. He insisted that peace in Afghanistan was in Pakistan’s interests, and assured that Islamabad would “try [its] best to put pressure on the [Afghan] Taliban” in order to bring them to the table and hold negotiations.

However, he warned, “Putting pressure on the [Afghan] Taliban is easier said than done. Bear in mind that about 40 per cent of Afghanistan is now out of the [Afghan] government’s hands.”

Referring to President Trump’s South Asia policy, Mr Khan reiterated his stance of having dialogue to achieve peace in war-torn Afghanistan. He had been insisting that the Afghan conflict did not have a military solution, he said, adding that he had been labelled as “Taliban Khan” for many years for having this stance. “Now I’m happy that everyone realises there is only a political solution. From Pakistan’s point of view, we do not want the Americans to leave Afghanistan in a hurry like they did in 1989.”

PM Khan dismissed the accusation that past Pakistani governments had “lied” to the US, adding that the American administration had been “misinformed”.

“Is it possible that the greatest military machine in the history of mankind — 150,000 Nato troops with the best equipment and over $1 trillion — are they saying that just a few thousand Pakistani insurgents are the reason they didn’t win in Afghanistan?” he asked.

He said: “The United States expected Pakistan to take on the Afghan Taliban. But the Afghan Taliban were not hitting Pakistan. Tehreek-i-Taliban and Al Qaeda were hitting us.”

About the 2011 US operation in Abbottabad that killed Osama bin Laden, Mr Khan said it was “humiliating” that the US did not trust Pakistan to kill the terrorist. “It was humiliating that we were losing our soldiers and civilians and [suffering terrorist] bomb attacks because we were participating in the US war, and then our ally did not trust us to kill bin Laden,” he regretted and added that the US “should have tipped off Pakistan”.

When asked if he, at one time, had condemned bin Laden’s killing itself and called it a “cold-blooded murder”, the premier said he did not remember where this came from. “But I do remember that, and not just me, most Pakistanis felt deeply humiliated that we were not trusted, implying that we were complicit in it.”

The premier, however, admonished the US for drone strikes. “Who would not be against drone attacks? Who would allow a drone attack in their country when, with one attack, you kill one terrorist and 10 friends and neighbours? Has there ever been a case of a country being bombed by its own ally? Of course, I objected to it. All it did was create more anti-Americanism,” he said. Peace talks with India

On India’s repeated dismissal of peace talks, Mr Khan said the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was reluctant to engage in dialogue due to upcoming elections. “The ruling party has an anti-Muslim, anti-Pakistan approach. They rebuffed all my overtures.”

“Let’s hope that after the election is over, we can again resume talks with India,” he added.

He said he wanted the case of the Mumbai attacks to be resolved, adding that he had asked the government to find out the status of the case. “Resolving that case is in our interest because it was an act of terrorism,” he added.

On the economic front, Mr Khan reviewed his government’s steps and boasted the return of foreign direct investment (FDI). He said major companies were investing again “because we are a clean government. We won’t be asking them for money”. He said the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-led government was “making major reforms in tax collection — getting more people to pay taxes. We want people to be able to make money here”.

He reiterated his plan to end poverty from the country, with or without the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme. He said the country had received monetary help from Saudi Arabia, China and the United Arab Emirates, but said the latter two countries wanted the figures to remain “confidential”.

Published in Dawn, December 8th, 2018