Pakistan: a Naked Study in Washington’s Tyranny
Aug. 10, 2023 (EIRNS)—The most popular national leader in Pakistan is Imran Khan, deposed from power last year on instructions from the US State Department for openly defying the US call to line up against Russia. Since then he has led massive political marches, survived an assassination attempt, and had over 200 legal cases thrown against him. Now he has been sentenced, in a rather naked political witch hunt, to three years in prison and, most significantly, prevented from standing for political office. Right on cue, yesterday Pakistan President Arif Alvi dissolved the Parliament, with the aim of holding elections without the leading candidate in the country able to stand for election. It gets worse.
One of the charges against Imran Khan was that last year he had stated publicly that the US was behind the drive to remove him from power. It was well understood that Pakistan’s ambassador to the US had reported back to Islamabad about the US’s instructions. Yesterday, The Intercept cited the secret diplomatic cable which showed that the US did indeed pressure Pakistan to remove Khan over his neutrality regarding the conflict in Ukraine. Evidently a Pakistani military source revealed the cable to The Intercept. It documents a March 7, 2022, meeting where US Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu told Pakistan’s ambassador: “People here and in Europe are quite concerned about why Pakistan is taking such an aggressively neutral position” on Ukraine. Lu blamed Imran Khan for the offending policy.
Pakistani Ambassador Asad Majeed Khan pointed out that Pakistan’s position on Ukraine was broadly shared across the government. Lu then escalated, specifying that it is the PM’s behavior that was the problem. However, “if the no-confidence vote against the Prime Minister succeeds, all will be forgiven in Washington. Otherwise, I think it will be tough going ahead.” He added that Europe would follow the US’s lead in the “isolation of the prime minister.” Ambassador Khan indicated that the US threat seemed to be coming directly from the White House and suggested a strong diplomatic response. To add insult to injury, for revealing publicly that the country’s elected government was being threatened by a foreign country, the present regime has announced that Imran Khan is to be charged with violating the Official Secrets Act.
RT relates that, right after the ‘no confidence’ vote was performed, “Pakistan reversed its neutrality on Ukraine, demonstrating its fealty to Washington by supplying copious amounts of weapons to Kiev. Its military was reportedly rewarded with a defense pact covering ‘joint exercises, operations, training, basing and equipment’.”
Aside from the ugliness of the regime change, and a deal or two for the military, Pakistan’s economy has collapsed and the country has become ungovernable. Washington’s ‘Pakistan’ policy stands naked to a world that can only wonder, what does it benefit a country to submit to such pressure?
