A confidential document containing excerpts from a dialogue involving a Pakistani official and two officials from the US State Department has revealed the extent of US engagement in the no-confidence motion against Imran Khan in the year 2022
According to a leaked Pakistani government document obtained by The Intercept, the US may have influenced the no-confidence motion against former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan in 2022 because of his neutral stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
ALSO READ
Who Leaked Cipher Document to US Magazine?
According to The Intercept, the confidential Pakistani documents explain what happened on March 7, 2022, at a meeting between Pakistan’s ambassador to the US, Asad Majeed Khan, and two US State Department officials, including Donald Lu.
On March 8, 2022, a no-confidence motion was filed against Imran Khan a day after the meeting. Khan was ousted from power on April 10.
What did the leaked document contain?
According to a document leaked by The Intercept, Donald Lu, the US Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, criticized Pakistan’s neutral position on Ukraine.
The document showed that he had hinted at a no-confidence vote to rectify the situation during the meeting with the then Pakistani ambassador to the US.
As per the document, Lu said, “People here and in Europe are quite concerned about why Pakistan is taking such an aggressively neutral position (on Ukraine), if such a position is even possible. It does not seem such a neutral stand to us.”
He then went on to say that if the Prime Minister was replaced, “all would be forgiven in Washington,” according to The Intercept’s report.
During a meeting with Pakistan’s then-US ambassador, he hinted at a no-confidence vote to rectify the situation, according to the document.
As per the document, Lu said, “People here and in Europe are quite concerned about why Pakistan is taking such an aggressively neutral position (on Ukraine) if such a position is even possible. It does not appear to be a neutral position to us.”
He went on to add that if the Prime Minister (Imran Khan) were removed, “all would be forgiven in Washington,” according to The Intercept.
“I think if the no-confidence vote against the Prime Minister succeeds, everything will be forgiven in Washington because the Prime Minister’s decision to visit Russia is being viewed as a decision by the Prime Minister,” Lu stated, according to The Intercept.
According to the document, the Pakistani ambassador expressed hope that the Russia-Ukraine conflict would not harm Pakistan’s relationship with the US.
“From our perspective, I would argue that it has already made a dent in the relationship,” Lu added.
“Let us wait a few days to see if the political situation changes, which would mean that we would not have a big disagreement about this issue and the dent would go away very quickly,” a US State Department official stated, according to a document obtained by The Intercept.
In reaction to charges that the US played a role in Imran Khan’s removal, State Department spokeswoman Mathew Miller stated that the allegations were baseless.
“We had expressed concern about then-PM Khan’s visit to Moscow on the day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and have communicated that opposition both publicly and privately,” he stated, according to The Intercept.
Accusations by Imran Khan against the United States
On March 27, 2022, Khan, who is currently imprisoned after being convicted in a corruption case, claimed that “foreign forces,” which he later said were “Washington,” had orchestrated a plot to depose him and showed the cypher or the classified diplomatic document at a public rally to back up his claims.
In July of this year, Pakistan’s Federal Minister, Khawaja Asif, stated that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf head exploited a “diplomatic cypher for political purposes, and he could face treason charges for using the Pakistan government’s classified document for vested interests.”
Khan might face treason charges in the Cypher case, he suggested.
