Overseas Pakistanis to Be Engaged in National Development Effort
Los Angeles, CA: Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to the United States, His Excellency DrAsadMajeed Khan, recently visited Southern California.
Ambassador Khan has had a very long and distinguished career in the foreign services of Pakistan that spans over almost three decades. Before taking charge as the Ambassador of Pakistan to the United States in January 2019, he was the Ambassador of Pakistan to Japan from August 2017 to January 2019. He's not a stranger to the United States as he has served here before, as the DCM at the Embassy of Pakistan in Washington, DC, from 2012 to 2015. Ambassador Khan earned his Doctorate in International Economic and Business Law from Kyushu University Japan.
During his visit of the West Coast, Ambassador Khan sat down with ArifMansuri, the President of PL Publications, for an exclusive interview. PL Publications is the publisher of the USA based weekly newspapers, Pakistan Link and Urdu Link. Below is an account of this interview:
PL Publications: We are at the Consulate of Pakistan in Los Angeles and we are very fortunate to have His Excellency DrAsadMajeed Khan, the Ambassador of Pakistan with us here today. First, I would like to welcome you to our program
Ambassador Khan: Thank you very much MrMansuri.
PL Publications:Mr Ambassador you took charge of the office as the Ambassador of Pakistan to the United States a few months ago, in January 2019. This is your first official visit to Los Angeles and the West Coast. Would you please share with us the nature and objectives of this visit?
Ambassador Khan: Of course, I'm very happy to be here in Los Angeles, and you're right, last time I visited LA was in my private capacity. As Pakistan's Ambassador to the United States, I think coming over to the West Coast and visiting our community here in Los Angeles and the West Coast is an absolute must for several reasons. You have Silicon Valley here and this is one area where I think Pakistan has done very well in terms of promoting our exports. I think our community; our diaspora here has played a very important role. This is potentially one sector that can make a big difference, by allowing us to expand our exports. So I wanted to come here to basically meet some of the prominent Pakistani Americans, and some of the other companies and then of course, I also wanted to meet and greet the leading members of the community, to get a sense of how they look at Pakistan and what is it that we can do together. So this is really my first outing here and certainly not the last, and I look forward to coming back here more often.
PL Publications:Mr Ambassador, you touched upon the subject of trade between Pakistan and the United States. The US is the largest trading partner of Pakistan. Pakistan certainly gets a lot of remittance from the USA. But in addition to those remittances, we have a lot of business now being developed in information technology and other sectors as well. What are some of the initiatives you're taking to increase the trade between US and Pakistan?
Ambassador Khan: I think the future of our relationship frankly is in promoting trade and investment, and as you have rightly pointed out, the United States is one of our major trading partners. US is also a major source of investment and it is the third largest source of foreign remittances. In fact, within those remittances are also those transactions that perhaps are basically the amounts that are remitted to Pakistan in lieu of the services that Pakistani outsourcing companies are providing. As you may know, many companies have gone to Pakistan. ExxonMobil has gone back to Pakistan. Pepsi has inaugurated a new plant in Pakistan worth over 100 million dollars.
So, with better security, more energy availability and better connectivity, I think the stage is setin Pakistan for promoting business and investment linkages. It will be my top most priority and in fact, I will be coming back here and also in San Francisco to promote trade because frankly the problem really is that people don't know about the potential and possibilities in Pakistan. So, my job would be to go out and meet as many people, to tell them about what we are doing in Pakistan, what they can do in Pakistan, and what we can do together. So that's going to be an area of major interest for me.
PL Publications: The US-Pakistan relationship is just as old as Pakistan. And the relationship has seen a lot of ups and downs. What is the current status of US-Pakistan relationship and what do you see as the future of this relationship?
Ambassador Khan: I think our relationship over the last many years has been basically seen through the Afghan prism, because that's what US's main pre-occupation has been. So the ups and downs in the relationships have been kind of linked to the ups and downs in the situation in Afghanistan. But luckily I think today both the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of Pakistan are on the same page in terms of their desire to see a peaceful settlement of the conflict in Afghanistan. And Pakistan has done a lot in terms of facilitating that process. We remain committed to facilitating that process and obviously that has created a new environment of goodwill and I think this opens up possibilities for more corporation in other areas.
PL Publications: You touched upon the situation in Afghanistan. Recently there has been a change in the US-Pakistan narrative regarding Afghanistan and the Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan has recently said regarding the Afghan peace process that "This is a historic opportunity for peace in the region." What is the current situation in Afghanistan and what is the future of Pakistan-Afghanistan relationship?
Ambassador Khan: I think the security environment in Afghanistan obviously remains precarious and of course, the peace process is on. Ambassador Khalilzad had one of the longest negotiating sessions with Taliban but then the intra-Afghan part of the dialogue that was supposed to take place in Doha on the 19th, did not take place. I think all sides are working to basically make that happen because we believe that the sustainable peace will only be achieved when all Afghans sign on to that process. And so intra-Afghan dialogue remains a very important part of this process. The only way to achieve an Afghan led, or Afghan owned peace process, is for all of them to basically come to a common understanding. And once you have that then obviously it will also help improve the peace and security environment in Afghanistan. I can certainly tell you that there is a commitment and seriousness on our part to facilitate the peace process. But it is certainly not just Pakistan's responsibility. I think it is a shared responsibility, where all the regional actors have to basically do their part in facilitating the process.
PL Publications:Mr Ambassador you talked about shared responsibility. So, I would like to get your thoughts on Pakistan-India relationship. The relationship between India and Pakistan is of course very complex, and largely it has been a very hostile relationship. Recently, the two nuclear powers came to the brink of a full war. I'd like to ask you, first of all, what can the other nations,especially those like the United States, do to prevent the situation from deteriorating to the extent that it did in February this year, and also what is currently the situation between India and Pakistan?
Ambassador Khan: I think instead of looking at it in terms of what others can do, I think what is really important is for India and Pakistan to basically be able to engage and have dialogue with a view to resolving all issues. And I think the Prime Minister has been very consistent and in terms of his desire to seek peace, I think he has clearly come out as a man for peace. And despite the provocations and aggressions that India committed, we returned the pilot that was in our custody. We have been making the right overtures on the Kartarpur corridor also. But then, I mean this should not be in any way seen as a sign of weakness. I think it is really a genuine belief that the only way to unleash the true economic potential of Pakistan and the wider region is to seek peace, both on the Western border, as well as on the Eastern border.
It is very unfortunate that India has not reciprocated the gestures that we've been making, the Prime Minister has been making. International community, I think can make a contribution to the extent of impressing upon India the need to not build up defenses that they did, post-Pulwama, not to use the relationship with Pakistan to gain domestic political mileage. And not to say things that they would see as an endorsement of their position, because I think clearly and if you look at the trend or the chain of events, one after the other, all their claims have been debunked, not by us, but by India’s independent media, the independent observers and the satellite imagery. There was no madrassa, there was no terrorist camp, there were no 300 terrorists killed, there were no F-16s. So, the whole situation and even this initial claim of link between Pakistan and Pulwama was completely unfounded and misplaced. I think that is what they need to be told that what they are doing, and what they are saying, is not good for peace in the South Asian Region.
PL Publications: There is a new government in Pakistan, the Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan has promised the nation a new Pakistan, a naya Pakistan. Since the new regime has taken charge, there has been an improvement in Pakistan's image in the community of foreign nations, the corruption is also down but the economy has become quite strained. How do you see the current situation in Pakistan and what are your views regarding Pakistan’s economy? When do you expect the economy to bounce back?
Ambassador Khan: First of all, yes, I think we face a tough and challenging economic situation. These challenges are less systemic and, in some ways, more cyclical. Because of the steps that the government has taken, at least a complete financial disaster has been at least avoided. Now stabilizing the economy would take some time. And even the measures that are being taken today, we will only get to see their impact and results in a matter of months and years and not right away.
In terms of fiscal austerity, in terms of expanding the domestic resource base, mobilizing the taxes, rationalizing the tariffs, improving ways of doing business and enhancing the competitiveness - all the steps that any economy needs to put it on the growth trajectory are at hand. The impact of these steps will take some time to be seen.
PL Publications: Though you have been here in the US recently for only a couple of months, you have a long history here and you’ve known a lot of community members from the time when you were stationed at the Pakistan Embassy in DC as the DCM. What is your opinion of the Pakistani community, and if you have a message for the Pakistani-Americans?
Ambassador Khan: I think in America, our community is the most well placed, the most influential and very patriotic. So, I am really looking forward to working closely with them and building the bridges that we need between our two countries.
I think one of the things that really distinguishes this government and the Prime Minister is one of the things that he told me directly, that our overseas diaspora has a lot to offer, that we must look after them and engage them in our national development effort. There are several schemes that are being designed that would allow the overseas Pakistanis to contribute to the growth and welfare of Pakistan.
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