Pak-US ties should not be judged through China, Afghanistan lens, says Shehbaz

PM reiterates desire to rebuild Pak-US partnership,

ISLAMABAD (Mudassar Chuhdary)

With questions raised recently over Pakistan’s ties with the US in the context of its ties with India, Prime
Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday said that the Pakistan-America relationship should not be judged in
the China and Afghanistan context.
He said this while addressing an event in Islamabad on Thursday to mark the 75th anniversary of
Pakistan-America relationship.
During the ceremony, Shehbaz reiterate the importance Pakistan gives to its ties with Washington,
adding that America was amongst the first countries to accept the new state of Pakistan.
He said that during every difficult time, America helped Pakistan, and we must move forward to think
about the future.
“We really want to build and reset these relations back to normal and friendly relations based on trust,
respect and mutual understanding. Of course, there is a file on your part and a file on our part but if we
have to move forward and we must then I’m we can find ways and means to warm up our relations to
levels we have seen in the past,” PM Shehbaz said while addressing the ceremony.
He also said that the US should not see relations with Pakistan through the lens of Afghanistan or China
as they should stand on their own.

“When Pakistan was facing the worst kind of outages, [then] prime minister Nawaz Sharif decided to
spend from our own scarce resources to invest [in] another 5,000MW [of electricity]. Finance minister
Ishaq Dar opposed tooth and nail… he said I don’t have the money… he had his own pertinent point. PM
Nawaz thought on top of what we’re getting on CPEC projects. He said let’s not delay it because if there
is another dharna CPEC programme will be derailed and by the time of the 2018 election, we wouldn’t
be able to show anything to the people of Pakistan,” he added.
Premier Shehbaz said that as a result of that decision [we got] 5,000MW [of electricity and out of that
3,500MW was installed by GE. “The plants were installed in the fastest possible time,” he lauded.
The prime minister said that he was the most ardent supporter of the friendship between Pakistan and
the United States. “Let bygones be bygones… as long as we have serious dialogues, we cannot go
wrong.”
Talking about his recent trip to Washington, PM Shehbaz said that he had many productive meetings in
the US including with President Biden and Secretary Blinken.
“I had thanked them. I thank them again [here]. I thank them for the programme they announced for
the flood-affected people,” he said.
“Had we used $32 billion [given by the US to Pakistan in the past] in the right direction and properly
supervised, we would’ve broken our begging bowl,” he added.
Talking about floods in Pakistan, PM Shehbaz said that the disaster was not made by Pakistan as it is a
developing country.
“Pakistan is a very strong nation. People are very hard working. Our population is 50 per cent male and
50 per cent female. There is complete freedom of action. The US are our biggest trading partner,” he
said.
“This catastrophic situation is not made by us… it is manmade but not by us. 1,600 people have left this
world including 400 children. More than a million mud houses have been thrown into the Arabian sea.
People are living under the open sky waiting for help. It is my duty [to help] but whatever we do will not
be enough.”
He requested the US and the international community to stand by Pakistan during this difficult time.
“This is our right. We have not brought this upon us,” he added.
“We want to go back to those wonderful times when our relations with the US had their own standings.
I would work most willingly for those relations,” he concluded.
In his address earlier, the US ambassador said that the people of the United States continued to stand
with Pakistan. The strength of the bilateral friendship is demonstrated by the more than $66 million in
US support for flood response.
“We are doing what friends and partners do – support each other when it’s needed most… Our
partnership has been advantageous to both countries,” he remarked according to a US embassy press
release.
Over the decades, more than $32 billion dollars in US support benefited Pakistan and improved the lives
of the Pakistani people, the ambassador added.
On the occasion, US Ambassador Donald Blome also met the prime minister and discussed the matters
related to bilateral relations and cooperation.