In his new found love for Pakistan and its country Trump has fallen for another fib that Pakistan can guarantee Taliban’s faithful observance of any Afghanistan peace. 

It is difficult to believe that it was the same President Donald Trump who had famously tweeted about how Pakistan used ‘lies’ and ‘deceit’ to ‘fool’ the US for more than a decade and milked his country of $33 billion was showering praise on a country he had so savagely derided while welcoming its ‘selected’ prime minister, former playboy-cricketer Imran Khan. But that is Trump for you—unpredictable and lacking political savvy.
He did not see that his visitor at the White House had tricked him into burying the treacherous past of Pakistan and ushered in a false dawn of another era of ‘fooling’ the world’s most powerful country. Trump may have fallen for the Pakistani word because Imran Khan was being chaperoned in the US by his army chief as well as he head of its notorious intelligence wing, the ISI.
Pakistanis may invent reasons to see Trump in an altogether new light but they may be expecting too much from the maverick, particularly a hope that improved US-Pakistan ties will come at the cost of India. But the hope may remain a mirage going by the depth of India-American ties.
Imran Khan must have been surprised by the unexpected warmth shown by Trump. But back home, his critics accused him of betraying the country by speaking ‘lies’. His PR and propaganda machine made sure that most Pakistanis think that he had achieved a double success in the US. Relations with the US will return to happier days and—the biggest trophy—chances of US ‘mediation’ on Kashmir which the Pakistanis think will mean forcing India to hand over Kashmir to Pakistan—an impossibility.
What made things easier for Imran Khan in Washington was a still not convincing theory that started floating even before Trump came to power that the only way the US can get out of Afghanistan ‘honourably’ is to seek ‘help’ from Pakistan and its Generals. A desperate but short-sighted US has assumed that it has no leverage over the economically tottering and isolated Pakistan which is far from being regarded as a ‘normal’ country.
Trump seems ready to pay a price to Pakistan for ‘extricating’ the US from Afghanistan by being indulgent towards Pakistan, once again ready to open the American purse strings and shutting eyes and ears to Rawalpindi Shura’s continuous mischiefs. Trump’s America is being delusional if it thinks that Pakistan under its prime minister ‘selected’ for the post by the military has turned its back towards terrorism. The sham steps taken by Pakistan like the arrest of Hafeez Saeed, a globally recognized mastermind of terror attacks, are now being absurdly accepted as an indication of Pakistan’s intentions to turn a new leaf in its bizarre political course.
You don’t have to be a keen observer of Pakistan to know that Pakistan does not have a credible record in making promises about demolishing its terror factories. The US is familiar with its duplicity. Till Trump took over, Pakistan was always allowed to get away by denials about hosting terror groups.
Imran Khan returned home from his US tour to a hero’s welcome to prove that he remains the most popular leader of his country. But a surprise ‘hero’ in Pakistani eyes was Donald Trump who was universally disliked in the Islamic Republic for being ‘anti-Muslim’ and ‘pro-India’. And this has happened even before Trump actually resumes the flow of dollars into Pakistan.
Undoubtedly, the turnaround in favour of Trump was the result of his offer, made at Imran Khan’s bidding, to ‘mediate’ on the Kashmir dispute. For the Pakistanis it was as though the sun had suddenly emerged out of dark skies. Pakistanis assume—foolishly—that US mediation will mean handing over Kashmir to them.
Imran Khan had also made some important remarks that appeared to be part of a PR exercise to impress his host rather than any expression of remorse for the foolhardy acts of his predecessors. He admitted that Pakistani leaders of the past had ‘lied’ on terrorism that was officially nurtured in Pakistan to fight Pakistan’s proxy wars in Afghanistan and India. According to him, about 40 terrorist groups still operated from inside Pakistan and their foot-soldiers number about 40,000. How will Pakistan deal with this situation must be unclear to the Americans but they are not asking.
An astonishing admission by Pakistan that came to light during the course of Imran Khan’s three-day visit was that intelligence about the hideout of Osama bin Laden, at Abbottabad near Rawalpindi was provided to the US by the ISI. That is interesting because Pakistan had maintained for years that Osama bin Laden was not in Pakistan and after the US commandoes killed him, it made much hue and cry that the US action had kept the Pakistanis in the dark. Trump should be cautious about the contradictory claims by Pakistan about bin Laden before he begins to accept word given by Imran Khan on winding up terrorist camps. More so as Pak Prime Minister has always been openly sympathetic of the fanatics and religious extremists in his country.
In his new found love for Pakistan and its country Trump has fallen for another fib that Pakistan can guarantee Taliban’s faithful observance of any Afghanistan peace. The American President and his aides will do well to remember the track record of Pak Army and the Taliban.