ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has said Pakistan would want a civilised relationship with the US, which you have between nations, and would like to improve the trading relationship with the US. In an interview with the New York Times, the prime minister further elaborated that he wanted the relationship between Pakistan and the United States in line with the relations between the US and Britain, or actually between US and India right now.
He said it was a lopsided relationship between Pakistan and the US as the latter felt that they were giving aid to Pakistan, they felt that Pakistan then had to do US’s bidding.
“And what Pakistan did in terms of trying to do the US bidding actually cost Pakistan a lot in human lives. Seventy thousand Pakistanis died, and over $150 billion were lost to the economy because there were suicide bombings and bombs going on all over the country. That’s where the problem began. The US kept expecting more from Pakistan. And unfortunately, Pakistani governments tried to deliver what they were not capable of.”
He said there was this mistrust between the two countries and people in Pakistan felt they paid a heavy, heavy price for this relationship and the US thought Pakistan had not done enough.
“So in that sense, it was a lopsided relationship. What we want in the future is a relationship based on trust and common objectives. That’s actually what we have right now with the US — I mean, our objectives in Afghanistan are exactly the same today.”
About Pakistan’s strategic relevance for the US after the Afghanistan exit, PM Khan said the states really have relationships based on common interests and Pakistan is a country of 220 million people, a young population, in a sense strategically placed for the future if our relationship with India improves at some point.
“So we have one of the biggest markets on one side of Pakistan, and then China on another side. So two of the biggest world markets. And then the energy corridor, Central Asia, Iran, if that relationship improves between the US. So Pakistan, in that sense, is strategically placed for the future in terms of economics.” About the military and security relationship going forward between the US and Pakistan, he said that he was not clear that post US withdrawal, what sort of military relationship it will be. “But right now, the relationship should be based on this common objective that there is a political solution in Afghanistan before the United States leaves because Pakistan doesn’t want a civil war, a bloody civil war in Afghanistan.
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