'Less than a month after taking office, Pakistan’s new coalition government is already having to navigate a foreign policy quagmire,' writes Hasan Ali (hali1189)
Popular Opinion May Prevent Pakistan's New Government From Mending Ties With the U.S.
In the capital Islamabad, the popularity of Khan’s conspiracy theory has caught the new coalition by surprise. At the center of the row is a diplomatic cable sent on March 7 by Pakistan’s then ambassador to Washington, Asad Majeed Khan. The missive allegedly relays a U.S. State Department assessment that ties with Pakistan suffered a blow under the former prime minister. It has been seized on by his supporters as evidence of Washington’s ill intentions.
Blaming America is a political no-brainer for Khan, whose tough stance on U.S.-led drone strikes in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province was widely admired. Now, ahead of a planned 2023 poll, he is again positioning himself as the anti-America candidate and capitalizing on the public’s mistrust of Washington to pressure the coalition government, which needs U.S. support to bail out the country’s cash-strapped economy.
Among the political and military elite, there is unease as to the direction in which the country’s foreign policy should pivot. The reputation of the U.S. as an unreliable ally has been amplified by the