Imran Khan plans Modi-style rally to impress Trump as Pakistan takes token steps on terror

WASHINGTON: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan will be attempting a Modi-style public rally in Washington DC involving the Pakistani community to impress the Trump administration ahead of his White House meeting with the US President on July 22.


Such rally, now a routine for Indian leaders but a first for a Pakistani prime minister in the US, will take place at the Capital One Arena on July 21, capping a series of conciliatory steps by Islamabad to mollify New Delhi and Washington, who’ve been on the same page as far as Pakistan’s depredations go.

Pakistan on Monday arrested Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief and internationally proclaimed terrorist Hafiz Saeed in what is widely seen as a token step to placate the Trump administration, which like the Obama administration continues to take a dim view of Islamabad’s support to terrorist groups. But the Trump White House has been even tougher in terms of punitive measures, cutting off all bilateral aid that the Obama-Biden-Kerry dispensation facilitated. Pakistan has also reopened its civilian airspace to allow a shorter flight routes for flights between India and US.

Washington has much greater leverage to get Pakistan do its bidding since Islamabad depends on US not just for economic survival based on aid and trade, but also for people-to-people access to US. There are an estimated 500,000 Pakistan-origin people in the US (approximately 364,000 as per the 2010 census), and while their numbers, success, and profile are in no way comparable to that of Indians, it is still significant.

However, not all Pakistanis are aligned with Khan’s ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf party which is hosting the rally. Several dissident groups of Muhajirs, Baloch, and those loyal to Bhutto-Zardari’s PPP and to incarcerated former prime minister Nawaz Sharif are expected to protest at the rally.

If anything, the rally could end up showcasing Pakistan’s fractured politics although Imran Khan’s acolytes and PTI flaks in the US are asking Pakistanis to turn up in droves irrespective of party affiliation at the Capital One Area, which is located in the Chinatown area in Washington DC and has a capacity of 20,000.

In fact, in an obvious attempt to control any expression of dissent or awkward situations, Khan will be speaking at an “invitation only” think tank event hosted by the US Institute of Peace (USIP) on July 23, a day after his meeting with President Trump. Pakistan’s foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi was recently confronted at an open event in London by a Canadian journalist who accused him of trying to censor criticism on social media.