‘Pakistan must take bold steps to end international isolation’

Rehman Malik says US policies towards Pakistan will be made in their
national interest; change of president will not have any significant effect

ISLAMABAD: Former interior minister and Chairman Senate Committee on Interior Rehman Malik does not see any change in the US policy towards Pakistan after the election of Donald Trump as the President. “With the recent statements of the top officials and leaders of the US with regard Daesh and al-Qaeda, may I ask those responsible for the loss of thousands of precious lives in Pakistan about any justification in Washington’s demand from Pakistan to do more?”

Talking to The News here on Sunday, he said that although the election of the US president is a decision of the people of the United States yet the entire world watches the results with great interest, simply because it is the only superpower and it plays a pivotal role in international policies.

Malik said a year ago, he talked about the presence of Daesh in Pakistan and stated that it was the brainchild of the West. He said that former British PM Blair had admitted the mistake of attacking Iraq and of supporting Daesh. This was used in the US elections and a video was shown in the campaign in which Hillary Clinton admitted to the creation of Daesh and al-Qaeda in a secret briefing to Congress. “Later on, email leaks appeared and Donald Trump used both the leaks in his favour and resultantly he won the electoral race,” he added.

“Some intelligence operators and US officials did not want that their president should be known as one of the creators of Daesh and al-Qaeda and there is a possibility that some more leaks on the pattern of WikiLeaks, will be made that will create problems for President Obama and the Democrats.”

Replying to a question, Malik said that the US policies did not change with the change of the presidents. Their foreign policy is based on their national interests. A case in point is the demand of ‘do more’. This was made by Bush and by Obama too. “I think there will be strict policies towards Pakistan after Trump comes into the White House,” he added.

The former interior minister said that he foresaw further difficulties for the Middle East in the coming days and the US and Russia may resolve the problem of Syria in such a way that will give face-saving to the US. “Putin had said that he and Trump would have the same policy and everyone knows that Russia was demanding from the US to leave Syria,” he added.

He was sorry that while touring the region two former UK prime ministers Brown and Cameron had also visited Pakistan but now Theresa May visited India but did not come to Pakistan and it was matter of concern for Pakistan. “We have to revisit our foreign policy,” he added.

He said PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, in his four-point demand, has pointed out the weak foreign policy of the government. Malik said Japan and India have entered into civil nuclear cooperation agreement but Japan did not enter such an agreement with Pakistan that shows Islamabad’s weak foreign policy that we could not convince even Japan for such an agreement with Pakistan. He said Trump’s desire for friendship with India clearly shows that he will prefer India to Pakistan but, at the same time, he could not ignore Pakistan being a nuclear power and because of geo-political importance. He said that future relationship between Pakistan and the US should depend on its policies towards Afghanistan-India, Pakistan-India and Iran-India.

In a reply to a question, Malik said the US-India relations were improving fast and in the coming days India will have a more aggressive stance towards Pakistan. He claimed that he had confirmed reports that Modi had conveyed to the US administration that he was ready to work with PM Nawaz Sharif in the coming days. The question is on what conditions?

“Modi has no soft corner for Pakistan,” he added. He said India was making every effort to diplomatically isolate Pakistan in the world that is clear from its recent actions. The question of isolation has to be given utmost importance and every effort has to be be made to end our diplomatic isolation.

Senator Rehman Malik said Paksitan’s internal problems were increasing day by day as political divide was increasing and non-employment was increasing, which were creating a crisis for the country’s economy.