Pakistan has few friends in Washington, and an ambassador with shady connections is unlikely to help. But, it can be argued, Khan is coming to DC not to change the dismal narrative on Pakistan, but to internationalise Kashmir
Foreign embassies around the world spy on their host nations and other embassies in their respective geographies and create hurdles until they are caught, jailed or thrown out. That’s the nature of what they are supposed to do apart from conducting routine diplomatic work.
Ambassador-designate Khan is an ethnic Kashmiri and a career diplomat, but has openly worked with discredited individuals and proscribed entities. (FILE PHOTO)
Pakistan’s embassies take this — let us call it “nuisance capital” — to another level, especially in Washington DC, ungrateful for the aid and grant they receive from the US. The money spigot has dried up of late, and relations between the two nations are barely civil — Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has still not received the first phone call from US President Joe Biden.
Despite such animosity, Islamabad is sending a former “president” of Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir, Masood Khan, as its ambassador to the US. He will live up, presumably, to his resume, and try to boost Imran Khan’s failed efforts to garner international support for his campaign against India over Kashmir.
Ambassador-designate Khan is an ethnic Kashmiri and a career diplomat, but has openly worked with discredited individuals and proscribed entities.
They include an individual called Ghulam Nabi Fai, an Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agent , who was jailed in 2012. The two of them shared a stage, with others, in 2018. Undeterred by incarceration, Fai is a frequent presence at protests staged by Khalistani and Kashmiri separatists at the Indian embassy in Washington.
In fact, the Pakistani embassy is well represented at these protests, as Indians have recorded and conveyed to the US, with photographic evidence. Pakistanis may describe their presence as observers, but recorded evidence points to their larger role in guiding and conducting protesters. The Pakistani embassy also dispatches personnel and diaspora volunteers to grill and heckle anti-Pakistan speakers and experts at seminars. Things get tough for them, especially resident ISI officials, when they are exposed.
Ambassador-designate Khan has other problems: His dealings, during previous visits, with organisations that have been seen to be fronting for US-proscribed terrorist outfits such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba. These and his contacts with Fai have caught the attention of US lawmakers. Three of them officially asked US attorney general Merrick Garland to investigate these contacts and interactions. Khan “clearly supports terrorists, and if this Administration is happy to provide him with a diplomatic visa, the American People deserve — at the very least — the due diligence from our government for a thorough investigation and answers,” they said in a joint letter this week. One of them had earlier urged Biden to deny Khan’s diplomatic credentials.
Pakistan has few friends left in this town, and an ambassador with shady connections is unlikely to help. But, it can be argued, Khan is coming to DC not to change the dismal narrative on Pakistan, but to boost Imran Khan’s largely failed campaign to internationalise Kashmir.
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