A leaked top-secret diplomatic cable has suggested that the United States had a role in the ouster of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, who was voted out through a no-confidence motion in April 2022.
A report by the US investigative outlet Drop Site said the diplomatic cypher contains details of a March 2022 discussion between Pakistan’s then ambassador to the US, Asad Majeed Khan, and American diplomat Donald Lu.
ALSO READ | ‘All will be forgiven in US’: Cypher leaked 4 years after Imran Khan’s ouster
What led to Imran Khan’s ouster?
Events leading up to Khan’s removal can be traced back to June 2021, when William J Burns, then director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), travelled to Islamabad seeking a meeting with the then-Pakistani prime minister.
Reports at the time said he waited an entire day to meet him, but the meeting never took place. Khan’s office reportedly informed Burns over the phone that the prime minister would only speak to his official counterpart as part of diplomatic protocol.
At the time, his counterpart was President Joe Biden, who had reportedly turned down several requests for a direct conversation after entering office in January that year.
These developments occurred about a month before Khan lost the no-confidence vote brought by the opposition, leading to the fall of his government.
Notably, Burns had travelled to Pakistan seeking access to Pakistani territory for American drone bases that would be used against targets in Afghanistan following the planned US withdrawal. He reportedly left without securing either the bases or a meeting with the prime minister.
The report said this had caused frustration in Washington. Khan also travelled to Moscow on the same day Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, despite reports that US officials had asked Pakistan to cancel the trip beforehand.
By the start of the 2020s, many in US policy circles reportedly believed Washington should withdraw from Afghanistan and reduce its engagement with Islamabad.
Pakistani military helped in Khan’s ouster?
The Drop Site report also claimed that Pakistan’s military leadership had started holding separate engagements with Washington before Khan was removed from office.
In July 2021, without the knowledge of the prime minister, the military reportedly hired a former CIA Islamabad station chief as a lobbyist in Washington. The report described this as an early sign that Pakistan’s generals had started taking an independent course outside the elected government.
Khan was voted out of office on April 9, 2022, through a no-confidence motion that was backed by Pakistan’s military. His party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, was later banned, lost its election symbol ahead of the 2024 general election, and was not allowed to contest under its own name. Those who won seats as independent candidates were also denied certification.
Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, were later sent to prison in connection with multiple cases involving corruption, contempt and national security allegations. Both remain behind bars, while Khan has been held in solitary confinement since last year.
With inputs from agencies
