Prime Minister Imran Khan was known in the media for his anti-American posture during his days in opposition. Now that he has been placed in the office he coveted for decades, the situation has changed.
On August 18, the day he took oath, Navjot Singh, an Indian cricket buddy of the prime minister, embraced Army Chief General Qamar Bajwa in a big, warm hug. We were given a hint of Pakistan’s changing posture when Navjot Singh shared with the world his conversation with the army chief, who apparently told him that opening of Kartarpura crossing for Sikh pilgrims was under consideration.
This sounded like good news for relations between the two countries but some pundits and the Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said it was not. Speaking to newsmen the afternoon, Qureshi said, “Pakistan’s foreign policy will be made here in the foreign office.”
But when it rains, it pours. As Qureshi continued answering questions in the same press conference, Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua pulled him to a corner and whispered something in his ear. A beaming Qureshi then returned to the podium and triumphantly announced that the Indian prime minister had also extended an offer to resume dialogue with Pakistan.
“The Indian prime minister issued a letter yesterday in which he congratulated Imran Khan and sent a message for dialogue,” he announced. Later, a clarification was issued from the Foreign Office, after the Indian government denied extending any such offer.
On Wednesday, August 23, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a congratulatory phone call to Prime Minister Imran Khan while Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi was in Multan. The optics were bad enough, as the first congratulatory call from the United States should have come from the President Donald Trump. It was a hawkish former CIA director who made the call, not even Vice President Mike Pence. The most newsworthy element from this phone call was not the message of congratulations but the advice for Pakistan. “Secretary Pompeo raised the importance of Pakistan taking decisive action against all terrorists operating in Pakistan and its vital role in promoting the Afghan peace process,” a readout issued by the State Department said.
Soon after, the Prime Minister’s Office issued its own press release which did not mention the things outlined in the State Department readout. This could have ended there but our sources say the PM’s Office, on seeing the US readout, went into an overdrive. The PM’s Office, these sources insist, forced the Foreign Office spokesman to tweet against the US readout. He wrote, “Pakistan takes exception to the factually incorrect statement issued by US State Department on today’s phone call between PM Khan and Secretary Pompeo. There was no mention at all in the conversation about terrorists operating in Pakistan. This should be immediately corrected.”
This generated a frenzy of diplomatic brouhaha between the US and the Pakistan government, with the Americans sticking to their line, while Pakistan denied denying it. The next day, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood also rejected the American readout, but when the US government sent the text of the phone call and threatened to release it to public, the Pakistani side decided to play it down. The Foreign Office spokesman, in his weekly press briefing, told reporters that he was not going to speak any more about on this topic, with Pompeo’s September 5 visit right around the corner.
Shah Mehmood Qureshi, too, tried to play it down and refused to comment in his press conference on September 2.
Sources in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs say the ministry initially had urged the PM’s Office not to answer Pompeo’s call and politely ask that his counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi be called instead. However, the prime minister’s political handlers vetoed it. After the call, when the US released the incendiary readout, the PM’s Office pressurised the Foreign Office to issue its own statement contradicting the readout, causing chaos in the Foreign Office bureaucracy.
But it was not over, after the Indians and Americans, there was an episode with the French.
Friday, August 31 was a busy day at the Prime Minister’s Office. Since many calls were pouring in, senior officials, including the foreign secretary and the foreign minister, were all present in office.
However, a highly publicised meeting of the prime minister with a dozen or so TV anchors was also in progress. A causal conversation with anchors hit a high mark when a senior TV anchor reported that French President Emmanuel Macron had called Prime Minister Imran Khan during the meeting with the anchors but the PM told his aides that he would take the call after he was done.
The senior anchor who broke the news added the caveat that the PM’s refusal to take the call signalled a new era in Pakistan, where the PM showed guts. Soon, news of these gutsy antics broke on TV channels, with many praising the prime minister’s bravado. Both, PM’s Office and the Foreign Office maintained a stony silence over this news, lending credence to report. The next morning most newspapers reported the snub but also reported the phone conversation did take place after the prime minister’s meeting with the anchors.
There was something bizarre about this entire episode. Both the French and the Pakistanis sides did not confirm if the phone call actually did take place. The radio silence was broken three days later, when Qureshi answered the question about the French phone call. He said the call did not materialise as the prime minister was busy on Friday. He said the phone call had been rescheduled for Monday, September 3. But till Wednesday, when this report was filed, no one has officially confirmed the status of that scheduled phone call. Is this a tit-for-tat from the French president?
A New York Times story published on September 4 brought new troubles for the besieged PM. The story suggested that the Pakistan’s military leadership, after a prodding from China, reached out to the Indian side just before the general elections to ease tensions so that Pakistan could focus on the economic front.
Both the ISPR and the Prime Minister’s Office have not responded to the news item yet. While the paper rightfully predicted that no breakthrough is possible before elections in India next year, who extended the olive branch to the Indians is still doing rounds in the national capital. Both the politicos and the pundits are raising eyebrows at the reported move since civilian governments have in the past come under attack for such initiatives.
As we go to press, Pompeo has arrived in the capital for his touch-and-go. He was accompanied by US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford and newly-appointed special envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad, who is quite disliked in Pakistan.
Pakistan’s relations with the Americans have recently turned frostier, with tough talk by the former CIA director CIA as he departed from Washington to Islamabad. Earlier, the $300 million Coalition Support Fund money was “reprogrammed” and denied to Pakistan. It is clear that the US has abandoned the sweets and carrots for Pakistan and now only relies on sticks. Pakistan gave the coldest reception ever to the visiting US delegation by sending low-ranking civil and military officials to greet the delegation.
On August 18, the day he took oath, Navjot Singh, an Indian cricket buddy of the prime minister, embraced Army Chief General Qamar Bajwa in a big, warm hug. We were given a hint of Pakistan’s changing posture when Navjot Singh shared with the world his conversation with the army chief, who apparently told him that opening of Kartarpura crossing for Sikh pilgrims was under consideration.
This sounded like good news for relations between the two countries but some pundits and the Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said it was not. Speaking to newsmen the afternoon, Qureshi said, “Pakistan’s foreign policy will be made here in the foreign office.”
But when it rains, it pours. As Qureshi continued answering questions in the same press conference, Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua pulled him to a corner and whispered something in his ear. A beaming Qureshi then returned to the podium and triumphantly announced that the Indian prime minister had also extended an offer to resume dialogue with Pakistan.
“The Indian prime minister issued a letter yesterday in which he congratulated Imran Khan and sent a message for dialogue,” he announced. Later, a clarification was issued from the Foreign Office, after the Indian government denied extending any such offer.
On Wednesday, August 23, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a congratulatory phone call to Prime Minister Imran Khan while Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi was in Multan. The optics were bad enough, as the first congratulatory call from the United States should have come from the President Donald Trump. It was a hawkish former CIA director who made the call, not even Vice President Mike Pence. The most newsworthy element from this phone call was not the message of congratulations but the advice for Pakistan. “Secretary Pompeo raised the importance of Pakistan taking decisive action against all terrorists operating in Pakistan and its vital role in promoting the Afghan peace process,” a readout issued by the State Department said.
Soon after, the Prime Minister’s Office issued its own press release which did not mention the things outlined in the State Department readout. This could have ended there but our sources say the PM’s Office, on seeing the US readout, went into an overdrive. The PM’s Office, these sources insist, forced the Foreign Office spokesman to tweet against the US readout. He wrote, “Pakistan takes exception to the factually incorrect statement issued by US State Department on today’s phone call between PM Khan and Secretary Pompeo. There was no mention at all in the conversation about terrorists operating in Pakistan. This should be immediately corrected.”
This generated a frenzy of diplomatic brouhaha between the US and the Pakistan government, with the Americans sticking to their line, while Pakistan denied denying it. The next day, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood also rejected the American readout, but when the US government sent the text of the phone call and threatened to release it to public, the Pakistani side decided to play it down. The Foreign Office spokesman, in his weekly press briefing, told reporters that he was not going to speak any more about on this topic, with Pompeo’s September 5 visit right around the corner.
Shah Mehmood Qureshi, too, tried to play it down and refused to comment in his press conference on September 2.
Sources in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs say the ministry initially had urged the PM’s Office not to answer Pompeo’s call and politely ask that his counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi be called instead. However, the prime minister’s political handlers vetoed it. After the call, when the US released the incendiary readout, the PM’s Office pressurised the Foreign Office to issue its own statement contradicting the readout, causing chaos in the Foreign Office bureaucracy.
But it was not over, after the Indians and Americans, there was an episode with the French.
Friday, August 31 was a busy day at the Prime Minister’s Office. Since many calls were pouring in, senior officials, including the foreign secretary and the foreign minister, were all present in office.
However, a highly publicised meeting of the prime minister with a dozen or so TV anchors was also in progress. A causal conversation with anchors hit a high mark when a senior TV anchor reported that French President Emmanuel Macron had called Prime Minister Imran Khan during the meeting with the anchors but the PM told his aides that he would take the call after he was done.
The senior anchor who broke the news added the caveat that the PM’s refusal to take the call signalled a new era in Pakistan, where the PM showed guts. Soon, news of these gutsy antics broke on TV channels, with many praising the prime minister’s bravado. Both, PM’s Office and the Foreign Office maintained a stony silence over this news, lending credence to report. The next morning most newspapers reported the snub but also reported the phone conversation did take place after the prime minister’s meeting with the anchors.
There was something bizarre about this entire episode. Both the French and the Pakistanis sides did not confirm if the phone call actually did take place. The radio silence was broken three days later, when Qureshi answered the question about the French phone call. He said the call did not materialise as the prime minister was busy on Friday. He said the phone call had been rescheduled for Monday, September 3. But till Wednesday, when this report was filed, no one has officially confirmed the status of that scheduled phone call. Is this a tit-for-tat from the French president?
A New York Times story published on September 4 brought new troubles for the besieged PM. The story suggested that the Pakistan’s military leadership, after a prodding from China, reached out to the Indian side just before the general elections to ease tensions so that Pakistan could focus on the economic front.
Both the ISPR and the Prime Minister’s Office have not responded to the news item yet. While the paper rightfully predicted that no breakthrough is possible before elections in India next year, who extended the olive branch to the Indians is still doing rounds in the national capital. Both the politicos and the pundits are raising eyebrows at the reported move since civilian governments have in the past come under attack for such initiatives.
As we go to press, Pompeo has arrived in the capital for his touch-and-go. He was accompanied by US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford and newly-appointed special envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad, who is quite disliked in Pakistan.
Pakistan’s relations with the Americans have recently turned frostier, with tough talk by the former CIA director CIA as he departed from Washington to Islamabad. Earlier, the $300 million Coalition Support Fund money was “reprogrammed” and denied to Pakistan. It is clear that the US has abandoned the sweets and carrots for Pakistan and now only relies on sticks. Pakistan gave the coldest reception ever to the visiting US delegation by sending low-ranking civil and military officials to greet the delegation.