How can US woo a distrustful Pakistan? Flood relief was a start.

Just how anti-American is Pakistan?

Judging by the outpouring of domestic political support that former Prime Minister Imran Khan received when he claimed the United States was in on the assassination attempt against him this month, quite a lot.

Go back to 2018, when the Trump-like populist Mr. Khan swept into power by shrewdly tapping into a deep vein of anti-American sentiments over the war on terror, and the antagonism seems confirmed.

Top it off with widespread support for Mr. Khan’s further claim that it was U.S.-engineered “regime change” that caused his ouster from power in April of this year.

It would all seem to add up to a deep well of anti-Americanism.

But hold on.

The hugely popular Mr. Khan appeared to switch gears this week when he told foreign journalists that he is ready to work with the U.S. – and even more surprisingly, that he no longer blames the U.S. for his removal from power in a vote of no confidence.

“As far as I’m concerned it is over, it’s behind me,” the Financial Times newspaper quoted Mr. Khan as saying in an interview Sunday on the U.S. role in the alleged political conspiracy.

“Our relationship with the U.S. has been as of a master-servant relationship, or a master-slave relationship, and we’ve been used like a hired gun. But for that,” he added, “I blame my own governments more than the U.S.”

Mr. Khan, who many believe would easily win parliamentary elections that could take place next year, now says he envisions “dignified” relations between the countries.

The charismatic leader’s about-face, which caused a collective national double take, reflects a number of factors at work in the South Asian nuclear power, regional analysts say. The factors range from a realpolitik recognition that Pakistan needs stable relations with Washington to warming feelings toward the U.S. for how it has stepped up with assistance following devastating floods that inundated as much as a third of the country this summer.

“People-to-people diplomacy”

Not to be overlooked, some say, is the influence of the large and prosperous Pakistani community in the U.S. A plea to turn down the anti-Americanism likely came from some of Mr. Khan’s biggest backers in the U.S., these observers speculate.

Still, relations between the two countries are so broken right now that calls for “dignified” relations aren’t going to have much impact, says Rabia Akhtar, director of the Centre for Security, Strategy, and Policy Research at the University of Lahore.

What is needed now is reestablishing trust, she says. And that is going to come first from what she calls “people-to-people diplomacy” and “soft-power initiatives” that strengthen ties between the two countries.

“Imran Khan’s new statement reflects what he knows to be true, that Pakistan as a state cannot afford not to have relations with the U.S.,” says Dr. Akhtar.

“But public trust needs to be restored first, because right now that’s gone,” she adds. “The only way to rebuild that trust is to restart and build back the ties between Pakistanis and Americans – the people-to-people connections – that we’ve lost.”

Exchange programs that brought American university students here have withered, she says.

Moreover, growing hostility toward U.S. and international nongovernmental organizations over the last decade culminated in new laws in 2018 that forced many groups to leave Pakistan – despite the lifesaving work they were credited with doing after 2010 floods and a 2005 earthquake. (The new government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif claims it is taking steps to streamline the operation of international NGOs.)

Dr. Akhtar cites three areas of cooperation she says both countries should focus on to rekindle these ties: climate change, renewable energy technology, and agriculture technology.

Emergency assistance

Indeed, for some Pakistanis, this summer’s devastating floods have had the positive side effect of setting U.S.-Pakistan relations on an upward course.

U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Power visited Pakistan in September, announcing additional emergency assistance in Islamabad and the launch of a U.S. military airlift of essential supplies in Sindh, a province that is home to many of the 33 million Pakistanis uprooted by the floods.

Noting the airlift would bring in much-needed supplies, from food to tents and medications, Ms. Power said during a visit to Dadu, a city in Sindh, that she hoped the sight of the U.S. military providing humanitarian assistance would start to change Pakistani perspectives.

“I think during the war in Afghanistan, there was an impression among some Pakistanis that the U.S. saw Pakistan only through the prism of Afghanistan,” she said. “Hopefully, this is a chance through this cooperation to strengthen the relationship between the two countries.”

Overall, the U.S. has provided nearly $100 million, making it the largest donor of emergency and recovery assistance.

Of course, the U.S. has good reasons beyond philanthropy and even the security of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal to want more than just stable relations with the country, some analysts say.

One of those reasons is China. Pakistan has been deepening its strategic and economic ties with Beijing for more than a decade now, joining China’s Belt and Road Initiative and jointly launching the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor as a steppingstone to Pakistan’s vision of becoming a regional transit hub.

“The U.S. doesn’t want to see Pakistan too tightly embraced in the arms of the Chinese,” says Furrukh Khan, an associate professor of postcolonial studies at Lahore University of Management Sciences, known as LUMS.

New arms sale

Indeed, U.S. desires to maintain strong security ties with Pakistan are a big reason the Biden administration in September approved the sale of $450 million in military equipment that will allow the Pakistani military to enhance the capabilities of its fleet of F-16s.

The Trump administration had suspended most security assistance to Pakistan and denied the sale of the F-16 equipment after former President Donald Trump took to Twitter in 2018 to accuse Pakistan of “deceit” over its anti-terrorist efforts.

Relations with the U.S. have improved since then, if only marginally.

But on the LUMS campus, many students say they remain hopeful for better ties with the U.S., a country they say shares more values with Pakistan than the country’s other major partners.

“Right now I’d say Pakistan’s closest strategic partner is China, and I’m pretty sure most students you asked would say the same,” says Amar Lal, a fifth-year law student. “But culturally and politically I would say I look more to the U.S.,” he adds, “and that, too, would be true of most students here.”

It’s why so many students seek to go on to postgraduate programs of study in the U.S., he says.

For Dr. Akhtar, it’s that vein of goodwill underlying the surface hostilities that should be mined first to put the U.S.-Pakistan relationship back on course.

“There is no magic wand that is going to suddenly bring mutual trust back to our relations,” she says. “It’s going to take sustained and expanded engagement, especially people to people, for that trust to be reestablished.”