HOUSTON: Realign­ments in Asia are posing new challenges to Pakistan, says Ambassador Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry, adding the country has dealt with such challenges in the past and will overcome the existing ones, too.

This was an obvious reference to India’s growing influence in South Asia, where it is seen as the new US partner in an effort to contain China. But American experts on South Asian affairs say that the Trump administration’s desire to reach trade equilibrium with China could also create new opportunities for Pakistan to maintain good relations with both.

“We need to focus on our goal and deal with these challenges,” said Ambas­sador Chaudhry who was addressing a large gathering of Pakistani-Americans at a community dinner in Houston on Sunday. The city is home to one of the largest Pakistani communities in the United States.

Mr Chaudhry reminded the US policymakers that in the past, Pakistan did act as a bridge between the United States and China and was willing to play that role again.

The Pakistan Embassy and consulates across the United States are using the 70th anniversary of independence to highlight 70 years of US-Pakistan partnership, and the ambassador devoted part of his address to “correct wrong perceptions” about the country.

“US perceptions about Pakistan lag behind the reality, which is changing every month,” said Mr Chaudhry while explaining how in the last three years terrorists had been defeated and forced to flee across the border or hide in some urban centres. “And we are cleaning them up too,” he said. “We are a loving people, a caring people and this love and care represents Pakistan, not a handful of extremists.”

Ambassador Chaudhry said that the overwhelming majority in Pakistan had rejected extremists and “we cannot allow a handful of terrorists to hold the entire country hostage”.

The envoy shared this message with a group of US lawmakers he met in the day. One of them, Congress­woman Sheila Jackson, urged the ambassador to arrange for a congressional visit to Pakistan so that the US lawmakers could see the changing realities in the country and adjust their perceptions.

Congressman Al Green emphasised the need for the Pakistani-American community to play its role in improving US-Pakistan relations. Congressman Bato O’Rourke noted that Pakistan too was a victim of terrorism and had made enormous sacrifices in the fight against this menace.

Published in Dawn, May 23rd, 2017