Islamabad, Pakistan – When Richard Grenell, a detailed confidante of Donald Trump, the incoming United States president, demanded the discharge of Pakistan’s jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan final November during protests in Islamabad, the submit went viral.
In one other since-deleted tweet the identical day, Grenell wrote, “Watch Pakistan. Their Trump-like chief is in jail on phony expenses, and the individuals have been impressed by the US Pink Wave. Cease the political prosecutions world wide!”
With each tweets garnering lots of of hundreds of views, on December 16, a day after Trump nominated him as a presidential envoy for particular missions, Grenell repeated his demand for Khan’s launch. This time, the submit racked up greater than 10 million views.
The message gained additional momentum when Matt Gaetz, one other Republican and a former Trump nominee for legal professional basic, additionally wrote, “Free Imran Khan”.
The posts on X (previously often called Twitter) had been seen as a major enhance for Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) celebration, which has been advocating for his or her chief’s launch since August 2023.
However many commentators stated they had been sceptical about this curiosity in Khan proven by Trump allies translating into significant stress on Pakistan to launch the ex-premier. And a few identified a deep irony within the PTI, the nation’s hottest political celebration, making an attempt to foyer the US for assist – lower than three years after it accused Washington of a job in Khan’s elimination.
Complicated relationship
Khan’s authorities was faraway from workplace in April 2022 via a parliamentary no-confidence vote after practically 4 years in energy.
He alleged a US-led conspiracy, in collusion with Pakistan’s highly effective army, as the reason for his elimination, rallying his supporters to protest nationwide. Each the US and the Pakistani army have strongly denied these allegations.
Since then, Khan and his celebration have confronted a wave of crackdowns. Khan has been imprisoned since August 2023 on dozens of expenses and convictions. His celebration’s image – a cricket bat – was banned from Pakistan’s nationwide election final February, forcing its candidates to contest as independents.
In the meantime, since Khan’s elimination, relations between Pakistan and the US seem to have marginally improved, with the Biden administration appointing Donald Blome as US ambassador to Pakistan in Might 2022, after the submit was vacant since August 2018.
All through the crackdown on Khan and the PTI, US officers have largely kept away from commenting, calling it an inside matter for Pakistan. Nevertheless, influential Pakistani diaspora teams within the US, the vast majority of whom assist Khan and the PTI, have campaigned extensively amongst American politicians to hunt aid for Khan.
“The vocal advocacy of the Pakistani diaspora within the US, notably across the launch of Imran Khan, provides layers of complexity to this relationship,” Hassan Abbas, a professor on the Nationwide Protection College in Washington, DC, advised Al Jazeera.
Their efforts led the US Congress to hold a hearing on the “way forward for democracy” in Pakistan in March final 12 months, prompted by bipartisan requires President Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken to scrutinise Pakistan’s controversial elections in February 2024.
Months later, in October, greater than 60 Democratic legislators urged Biden to leverage Washington’s affect over Islamabad to safe Khan’s launch. Then, simply days earlier than the US election on November 5, Atif Khan, a senior PTI chief within the US, met Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump to debate issues about Khan’s incarceration.
On January 22, two days after the brand new Trump administration takes workplace, one other congressional listening to is predicted on Capitol Hill relating to the November protests in Islamabad, throughout which a minimum of 12 PTI workers died. The PTI blames the authorities for the casualties.
To this point, Islamabad has dismissed the importance of the feedback coming from Trump allies. Final month, the Pakistani overseas workplace stated the nation seeks relations based mostly on “mutual respect, mutual curiosity, and noninterference in one another’s home affairs.”
“As for anybody making statements of their particular person capability, we might not wish to touch upon that,” stated Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, the overseas workplace spokesperson, throughout a media briefing.
Rana Ihsaan Afzal, spokesperson for Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, stated the federal government views remarks from people like Grenell or Gaetz as opinions of “non-public Americans.”
“Authorities doesn’t reply to particular person residents’ remarks. We stay up for working with the brand new administration, and provided that there’s agitation on the authorities stage will there be a must problem a proper response,” Afzal advised Al Jazeera.
Khan as knight in shining armour?
Syed Mohammad Ali, a non-resident scholar on the Center East Institute, described PTI supporters’ campaigning for US assist as “sort of ironic”.
“From pushing the concept of US intervention to topple the PTI authorities, the PTI-supporting diaspora is now wooing the incoming US administration to have a stronger position in what is occurring in Pakistani politics,” Ali advised Al Jazeera.
“However leaving apart that irony, it does present that for abroad Pakistanis sitting removed from the nation, lots of them see Imran Khan as their knight in shining armour.”
Trump, who in his first time period criticised Pakistan for offering “nothing however lies and deceit,” later developed a rapport with Khan through the latter’s premiership from 2018 to 2022.
The 2 first met in Washington in July 2019 and once more in Davos in January 2020, the place Trump referred to as Khan his “excellent good friend.”
In contrast, relations between Khan and Biden had been frosty. Khan usually criticised Biden for by no means contacting him after assuming the presidency in November 2020.
Former Pakistani ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani, acknowledged the Pakistani diaspora’s effectiveness in mobilising assist. “They’ve persuaded people in each events to name for Khan’s launch,” he advised Al Jazeera.
Nevertheless, Haqqani, a senior fellow on the Hudson Institute, cautioned that Pakistan stays a low precedence for Trump’s overseas coverage.
“It’s naive for PTI supporters to assume they’ll discover leverage with US officers this manner. Aside from one or two statements, there’s no signal of a broader coverage shift,” Haqqani stated.
Ali, who can also be a lecturer at Johns Hopkins College, emphasised the disconnect between US home politics and overseas coverage.
“The Trump administration might undertake a extra transactional method. Pakistan has benefitted up to now throughout Republican regimes, however at the moment, it isn’t a major participant in US plans,” he stated.
Haqqani famous that US leverage usually includes sanctions and financial pressures, however Pakistan, now not a significant support recipient, affords restricted choices for affect.
“Pakistan was once a number one recipient of US support post-9/11. However in recent times, support has drastically decreased. Points like Pakistan’s nuclear and missile packages, its relationship with China, and alleged assist for militants are what concern the US,” he stated.
“And Khan isn’t notably helpful on any of these fronts.”
