The United States established diplomatic relations with Pakistan in 1947 following the country’s independence. America has historically been one of the largest sources of foreign direct investment in Pakistan and has long been Pakistan’s largest export market.

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Pakistan has fallen on hard times, both politically and economically. In February 2024, the two main political groups – the Sharifs of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party and the Bhuttos of the Pakistan People’s Party – agreed to back a new army-sponsored government. However, the vote is viewed by many as illegitimate because of the widely held belief it was rigged.

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The controversy started way before the election itself, because Imran Khan, a popular politician who served as prime minister from August 2018 until April 2022, was sentenced to 14 years in prison in January 2025 after being convicted on corruption charges. Previously, Khan was convicted on other charges of corruption, revealing official secrets, and violating marriage laws in three separate verdicts (with sentences of 10, 14 and 7 years respectively). Khan and his allies are adamant about his innocence and claim all the charges leveled against him are nothing more than a strategy to keep him out of office.

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Economically, Pakistan is a financial disaster, thanks to the enormous amount of money it owes other countries and years of mismanagement. In September 2024, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved a $7 billion loan to Pakistan (this loan is in addition to the $3 billion bailout they gave Pakistan in July 2023). Pakistan is now the IMF’s fifth-largest debtor.

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In terms of national security, Pakistan has 170 nuclear warheads, and that must be taken seriously… as does the fact that Islamabad is developing a long-range ballistic missile that could provide Pakistan a weapon capable of striking the United States.

On the counterterrorism front, Pakistan has been an inconsistent, unreliable partner. America won’t soon forget that, even though it initially appeared that Pakistan was on board with President George W. Bush’s War on Terror – helping us capture several senior al-Qaeda leaders and a slew of lower-level operatives – we now know that those who were not captured continued to use Pakistan as a safe-haven to plot future attacks, often against U.S. interests. This included Osama bin Laden, the biggest slap in the face of all.

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We fought against an insurgency in Afghanistan for two decades, only to have Pakistan provide them sanctuary and support. We hunted Afghan Taliban, al-Qaeda, and Haqqani leaders, only to have Pakistan provide them safe harbor. In many ways, Pakistan undermined our efforts in Afghanistan from the very beginning but, because they had control of the supply line from Karachi to Kabul, they believed themselves to be untouchable.

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Now, they are learning the hard way they are not. The Afghan Taliban, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), have made Pakistan less safe, killing Pakistani soldiers at the border and increasing militant and terrorist attacks in Pakistan by the day. An angry and frustrated General Asim Munir, Pakistan’s army chief, recently summed up the problem: “They don’t listen to us.”