It has been more than nine  months since Joe Biden has taken charge as the President of the US, but Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has yet to receive a telephone call from the big man.

In the last nine months, Khan has been seen complaining in all his media interviews that Biden has not bothered to call him. “He is a busy man,” he once lamented when asked about the stony silence from the White House.

Despite Khan keeping a brave face, growing frustration is quite evident and according to a news report by a Pakistani daily The Express Tribune, he has approached an influential Pakistani American firm to lobby for him to persuade Biden to call. The influential Pakistani American is a friend of Biden and the Pakistani foreign office is trying to use his ‘good offices’.

While Imran Khan was expecting a pat from the US for Pakistan’s role for facilitating US-Taliban deal,  instead a bill was introduced in the US senate demanding a deeper investigation into the Taliban victory in Afghanistan and sanctions on non-state and state actors, including the government of Pakistan who had assisted them in ousting the Ashraf Ghani-led regime and supported their offensive in the  Panjshir Valley.

To  further blow  to Pakistan, one section of the bill is in the region which calls for the president to report to an appropriate committee on not just what Russia and China are up to in these countries, but also on matters “including border disputes with South and Central Asian countries that border the People’s Republic of China”. If that’s not enough, it goes on further to say that the US should identify areas of diplomatic, economic and defence cooperation with India to address the challenges posed by these countries, and an assessment of how it has affected India’s cooperation with the US”.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

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According to Pakistani analysts,  Khan is now more desperate and wants to talk to Biden to present Pakistan’s case either in person or on phone or video call but so far there has been no response from the Biden administration. There is no clear explanation from the White House as to why Biden has  avoided a telephone call. But observers believe this suggests that Pakistan, perhaps, is no more a priority for the US. Khan was planning to visit the US last week to address the UN General Assembly in person and the Pakistani foreign office and Pakistani lobby did try to convince Biden to host him in White House but it was turned down. But at the same time Biden had made a plan to host the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Sulking Khan canceled his visit. In the past, Pakistan used informal channels to communicate with US presidents. During Trump's term, Pakistan established direct contact with the US president using his son-in-law and the Saudi crown prince as facilitators.

But Biden is not new to Pakistan since he has vast experience in dealing with Islamabad first as head of the influential foreign relations committee and then as vice president and as Pakistani analysts believe that Biden's experience of dealing with  Pakistan, is working to Islamabad’s disadvantage.

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