File photo of Chief of Army Staff Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa. Courtesy ISPR
Visiting Washington, D.C., Pakistan Army chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa told a gathering at the Pakistan Embassy that he would “leave his office after the completion of his second three-year term in two months.” As reported, he also assured the nation that the armed forces had distanced themselves from politics and wanted to remain so. He was worried about Pakistan’s economy and said that revival of the national economy should be the first priority: “There could be no diplomacy either without a strong economy.”
During Gen. Bajwa’s meetings with the U.S. military—and Wendy Ruth Sherman, deputy secretary of state—he discussed the “regional security situation and bilateral cooperation,” saying “assistance from our global partners shall be vital for rescue/rehabilitation of the flood victims in Pakistan.” The visit might seem unusual to Pakistanis thinking that after Imran Khan’s earlier meta-diplomacy of alienating the U.S., Pakistan would stay away from the feared fallout, but Bajwa’s visit seemed to clear the cobwebs caused by Islamabad’s popular but immature politician. To complete the perception of Khan’s “blunder” one must refer to the PTI chief’s own characteristic speech-making when he asked his unseen aides in Pakistan “not to mention the name of America.” Such is the charisma of the “rising star” that his fans would not look at his statement as a humiliating volte-face.
Unfortunately, the PTI had then attempted to use the same diplomatic cipher as a means to get a vote of no-confidence against Khan dismissed, with then-information minister Chaudhry Fawad Hussain saying in the National Assembly that “loyalty to the state was the basic duty of every citizen under Article 5(1)” and that the opposition’s move was part of a “foreign conspiracy” against the government. To set things right, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director-General Maj. Gen. Babar Iftikhar had to deny any foreign conspiracy earlier this year and reiterate that “the Army is not involved in politics and has nothing to do with the political process.” But the fact remains that General Bajwa’s visit has served as a positive act of statesmanship. And this has not been misinterpreted because he has declared that he was not interested in the extension of his concluded tenure as the Army chief.
Imran Khan’s seemingly pro-Taliban statements and ill-concealed anti-Americanism compels one to go back to the uncertain state of Pak-U.S. relations following the Americans leaving Afghanistan. The August 2021 withdrawal had exposed the fragility of this bilateral relationship, with Americans thinking about the “dubious” role played by Pakistan in its commitment to the War on Terror. Unfortunately, Pakistani leadership has handled its relations with the United States without paying heed to Pakistan’s geographic position and regional politics. Simultaneously, Imran Khan’s “politics of defiance” towards all partners—trying to hold an Islamic Summit in Malaysia without Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies; holding a military exercise with Turkey in Azerbaijan without regard for Iran whose army was confronting the Azeri army on the Iran-Azerbaijan border (that was later “clarified” by the Turkish president during a visit to Tehran)—have risked pushing Pakistan further into isolation. In this scenario, it is quite clear from General Bajwa’s latest visit to America that Pakistan must act with great flexibility and wisdom in its foreign affairs for its own benefit.