Views: 21 Author: Site Editor Publish Time: 2019-07-24 Origin: BBCnews
Since he won Pakistan's general election just under a year ago, he has called for "mutually beneficial" ties with America, while remaining an outspoken critic of US anti-terrorist
tactics such as drone strikes.
The Trump administration is trying to negotiate its military withdrawal from Afghanistan with the Taliban, a militant group it has long accused Pakistan of supporting.As well as counterterrorism and defence, the two leaders are likely to discuss trade and investment as Mr Khan battles to fend off a balance of payments crisis after a bailout from
the International Monetary Fund.
How did relations fray last year?After Mr Trump tweeted again in November to remind Pakistan that 9/11 mastermind Osama Bin Laden had lived there before finally being hunted down by US forces, Imran Khan
shot back to "put the record straight" on which country had paid more to defeat terrorism.
However, a couple of months before that Twitter clash, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had already raised the prospect of a reset with the new government of Mr Khan.Adding to the positive mood music came a new tweet from Mr Trump on Wednesday, announcing that Pakistan had arrested the "mastermind" of the 2008 terror attacks in the
Indian city of Mumbai, after a search lasting two years.
In actual fact, the man arrested, Hafiz Saeed, has been arrested and freed several times by the Pakistani authorities over the past two decades. Far from hiding, he has even addressed rallies and campaigned in recent Pakistani elections.Khan, 66, was best known as Pakistan's most famous cricketer before he took office as prime minister in July 2018 following his PTI party's election victory; property tycoon and
reality TV star Trump, 73, took office as US president in January 2017
Khan governs a nation of 197 million people; Trump - 316 millionWriting in Foreign Policy, Sherry Rehman, Pakistan's ambassador to the US between 2011 and 2013, argues that "stabilizing Afghanistan is Pakistan's only real trump card" in its
dealings with the US.
Pakistan has always denied it was the architect of the Taliban. It was one of only three countries to recognise them after they took power in Afghanistan in 1996 and the last to breakdiplomatic ties when US-led forces ousted the movement after the 9/11 attacks in 2001.Few observers doubt that Pakistan has been instrumental in getting the Taliban to the table for direct talks with members of the Afghan government this month, a negotiation
praised by US lead negotiator Zalmay Khalilzad as a "big success"