Islamabad, Pakistan – When Richard Grenell, a close confidante of Donald Trump, the incoming United States president, demanded the release of Pakistan’s jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan last November during protests in Islamabad, the post went viral.
In another since-deleted tweet the same day, Grenell wrote, “Watch Pakistan. Their Trump-like leader is in prison on phony charges, and the people have been inspired by the US Red Wave. Stop the political prosecutions around the world!”
With both tweets garnering hundreds of thousands of views, on December 16, a day after Trump nominated him as a presidential envoy for special missions, Grenell repeated his demand for Khan’s release. This time, the post racked up more than 10 million views.
The message gained further momentum when Matt Gaetz, another Republican and a former Trump nominee for attorney general, also wrote, “Free Imran Khan”.
The posts on X (formerly known as Twitter) were seen as a significant boost for Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, which has been advocating for their leader’s release since August 2023.
But many commentators said they were sceptical about this interest in Khan shown by Trump allies translating into meaningful pressure on Pakistan to release the ex-premier. And some pointed out a deep irony in the PTI, the country’s most popular political party, trying to lobby the US for help – less than three years after it accused Washington of a role in Khan’s removal.
Complex relationship
Khan’s government was removed from office in April 2022 through a parliamentary no-confidence vote after nearly four years in power.
He alleged a US-led conspiracy, in collusion with Pakistan’s powerful military, as the cause of his removal, rallying his supporters to protest nationwide. Both the US and the Pakistani military have strongly denied these allegations.
Since then, Khan and his party have faced a wave of crackdowns. Khan has been imprisoned since August 2023 on dozens of charges and convictions. His party’s symbol – a cricket bat – was banned from Pakistan’s national election last February, forcing its candidates to contest as independents.
Meanwhile, since Khan’s removal, relations between Pakistan and the US appear to have marginally improved, with the Biden administration appointing Donald Blome as US ambassador to Pakistan in May 2022, after the post was vacant since August 2018.
Throughout the crackdown on Khan and the PTI, US officials have largely refrained from commenting, calling it an internal matter for Pakistan. However, influential Pakistani diaspora groups in the US, the majority of whom support Khan and the PTI, have campaigned extensively among American politicians to seek relief for Khan.
“The vocal advocacy of the Pakistani diaspora in the US, particularly around the release of Imran Khan, adds layers of complexity to this relationship,” Hassan Abbas, a professor at the National Defense University in Washington, DC, told Al Jazeera.
Their efforts led the US Congress to hold a hearing on the “future of democracy” in Pakistan in March last year, prompted by bipartisan calls for President Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken to scrutinise Pakistan’s controversial elections in February 2024.
Months later, in October, more than 60 Democratic legislators urged Biden to leverage Washington’s influence over Islamabad to secure Khan’s release. Then, just days before the US election on November 5, Atif Khan, a senior PTI leader in the US, met Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump to discuss concerns about Khan’s incarceration.
On January 22, two days after the new Trump administration takes office, another congressional hearing is expected on Capitol Hill regarding the November protests in Islamabad, during which at least 12 PTI workers died. The PTI blames the authorities for the casualties.
So far, Islamabad has dismissed the significance of the comments coming from Trump allies. Last month, the Pakistani foreign office said the country seeks relations based on “mutual respect, mutual interest, and noninterference in each other’s domestic affairs.”
“As for anyone making statements in their individual capacity, we would not like to comment on that,” said Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, the foreign office spokesperson, during a media briefing.
Rana Ihsaan Afzal, spokesperson for Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, said the government views remarks from individuals like Grenell or Gaetz as opinions of “private American citizens.”
“Government does not respond to individual citizens’ remarks. We look forward to working with the new administration, and only if there is agitation at the government level will there be a need to issue a formal response,” Afzal told Al Jazeera.
Khan as knight in shining armour?
Syed Mohammad Ali, a non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute, described PTI supporters’ campaigning for US support as “kind of ironic”.
“From pushing the idea of US intervention to topple the PTI government, the PTI-supporting diaspora is now wooing the incoming US administration to have a stronger role in what is happening in Pakistani politics,” Ali told Al Jazeera.
“But leaving aside that irony, it does show that for overseas Pakistanis sitting far from the country, many of them see Imran Khan as their knight in shining armour.”
Trump, who in his first term criticised Pakistan for providing “nothing but lies and deceit,” later developed a rapport with Khan during the latter’s premiership from 2018 to 2022.
The two first met in Washington in July 2019 and again in Davos in January 2020, where Trump called Khan his “very good friend.”
By contrast, relations between Khan and Biden were frosty. Khan often criticised Biden for never contacting him after assuming the presidency in November 2020.
Former Pakistani ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani, acknowledged the Pakistani diaspora’s effectiveness in mobilising support. “They have persuaded individuals in both parties to call for Khan’s release,” he told Al Jazeera.
However, Haqqani, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, cautioned that Pakistan remains a low priority for Trump’s foreign policy.
“It is naive for PTI supporters to think they can find leverage with US officials this way. Apart from one or two statements, there’s no sign of a broader policy shift,” Haqqani said.
Ali, who is also a lecturer at Johns Hopkins University, emphasised the disconnect between US domestic politics and foreign policy.
“The Trump administration may adopt a more transactional approach. Pakistan has benefitted in the past during Republican regimes, but currently, it isn’t a significant player in US plans,” he said.
Haqqani noted that US leverage often involves sanctions and economic pressures, but Pakistan, no longer a major aid recipient, offers limited options for influence.
“Pakistan used to be a leading recipient of US aid post-9/11. But in recent years, aid has drastically reduced. Issues like Pakistan’s nuclear and missile programs, its relationship with China, and alleged support for militants are what concern the US,” he said.
“And Khan isn’t particularly useful on any of those fronts.”
The post Why are Donald Trump’s allies cheering for Pakistan’s Imran Khan? appeared first on Al Jazeera.
