LAHORE: Acclaimed author and strategic expert Shuja Nawaz says even though the US paid lip service to supporting the civilian governments, it never really gave them ‘respect’ and preferred dealing directly with the military.

“Often the US ambassador to Pakistan would act like a ‘Viceroy’ or even ‘Mother Confessor’ as evident from some occasions. Subsequently, the people of Pakistan were told lies about the relationship with the US, making the relationship murkier. The feeling of mistrust in the US is pervasive and abiding,” he noted while speaking on the US influence in Pakistan’s internal affairs.

Mr Nawaz was speaking with senior journalist and analyst Zahid Hussain on the launch of his book The Battle for Pakistan: The Bitter US Friendship and a Tough Neighbourhood at the Afkar-e-Taza ThinkFest Conversations online on Monday.

Speaking with senior journalist and analyst Zahid Hussain, he detailed the broad contours of his book, which was poised to be launched in Lahore in December 2019 but the launch had to be cancelled.

Mr Nawaz, according a handout, emphasised that the United States never had any strategic thinking about the war in Afghanistan.

This lack of focus, Shuja Nawaz explained, was due to a lack of a ‘centre for gravity’ in Washington where decisions were, at times, made in the White House, National Security Council, the Pentagon and Capitol Hill.

Nawaz pointed out that despite claims to the contrary, the civil and military leaderships were never in agreement in Pakistan.

“They claimed they were on the same page but it was the same page in different books,” he exclaimed.

Speaking about the US-Pakistan relationship during the regime of the retired general Pervez Musharraf’, Shuja Nawaz, who has also written an acclaimed book on the Pakistan army, noted that Pervez Musharraf thought that the Afghan war would be quick and give Pakistan some brownie points.

“He didn’t consult even his core commanders till after committing to the US, let alone the parliament,” he pointed out. Both the US and Pakistan then entered the war with different strategic interests and so there was never really a convergence.

But their interests got so intertwined that this ‘charade’ continued, he argued. ‘Both countries were in the same bed but dreamt differently,’ Nawaz emphasised.

Commenting on India, he noted that while the war in Afghanistan had de-hyphenated ‘Indo-Pak’ and changed it to ‘Af-Pak,’ it was now returning to ‘Indo-Pak’ due to the surge in the Kashmir issue. Pakistan must make use of this opportunity, he asserted.

On the relations of Pakistan with China, Shuja Nawaz underscored that the Chinese leaders had been very consistent as they never asked Pakistan to scale down its relationship with the United States , stressing that Pakistan had to develop a clear line of thinking on how to deal with both the powers.

Talking about Joe Biden, the Democrats candidate for the upcoming US presidential election, Shuja Nawaz noted that Biden had ‘thought long and hard about Pakistan and the region.’

“As chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Biden wanted to give Pakistan a ‘Peace Dividend,’ which would not be related to coalition support, but focus on its development,” Nawaz pointed out. A Biden presidency, according to Nawaz, would give an opportunity for the US to fix the mistakes of the past as well as change the perception in the United States, which would now ‘look at Pakistan not as a rent seeking country but as a trade and economy hub that brings countries together’.

Shuja Nawaz asserted the real battle was for the ‘soul of Pakistan’ where the survival of Pakistan depends on civil society, business leaders, intelligentsia etc, asserting their control.

Published in Dawn, September 8th, 2020