The US decision to finally withdraw from Afghanistan has placed Pakistan in a catch 22 situation. It neither can afford to break relations from US and nor can afford to antagonize its friends and allies who do not want US presence anymore in Afghanistan.
Pakistan’s military establishment does not want to break relations with US that have been nurtured over last seven decades. It earnestly wants to hold on to the US that seems to be disengaging strategically. While the US may still be interested in Afghanistan and what happens in Central Asia, its traditional military engagement with Afghanistan, especially via Pakistan, is however coming to an end and that drastically reduces the strategic importance of Pakistan for USA.
Then is the sword of FATF hanging by their neck. Blacklisting of Pakistan which has already been on grey list for almost 3 years now will have a damaging impact on its already fragile economy. Exiled dissidents belonging to Baloch, Pashtun, Uyghur, Tibetan and Hong Konger Communities protested outside the headquarters of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in Paris on Saturday urging the international monitoring body to move Pakistan from the grey list to the blacklist. And Pakistan establishment knows it well that its only USA that can save them from getting into this mess.
China an all weather friend of Pakistan does not want US presence in Afghanistan anymore as it views Afghanistan a strategically important corridor for its One belt one road project and access to entire Central Asia.
Taliban nurtured and groomed by Pakistan also does not want any US presence in Afghanistan and would like to see the back side of US troops at the earliest . Not only this, it also does not want Pakistan to provide any military base to USA in Pakistan INORDER to operate in Afghanistan and has even threatened Pakistan Govt, in case it decides to provide this logistic facility to USA.
The contradictory needs have placed Pakistan in a precarious situation wherein it may have do an exceptionally well planned Balancing act.
It would be really interesting to watch as to how Pakistan comes out of this tight spot.