U.S. Meddling In Pakistan Provokes Mass Protest

In August 2023, The Intercept reported that it had obtained a classified Pakistani government document. The document revealed that, in a meeting held on March 7, 2022, the U.S. State Department had pressured the Pakistani government to remove Imran Khan as Pakistan’s prime minister over his neutrality on the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The document, labeled “Secret,” includes an account of the meeting between State Department officials, including Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu, and Asad Majeed Khan, who at the time was Pakistan’s ambassador to the U.S.

The diplomatic meeting came two weeks after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which launched as Khan was en route to Moscow, a visit that infuriated Washington.

One month after the March 7, 2022 meeting, a no-confidence vote was held in Pakistan’s Parliament, leading to Khan’s removal from power. The vote is believed to have been organized with the backing of Pakistan’s powerful military.

Pakistan’s position on the Ukraine war was quickly reversed after Imran Khan’s removal, which was followed, as promised in the meeting, by a warming between the U.S. and Pakistan.

Since Khan’s removal from power, Khan and his supporters have been engaged in a struggle with the military and its civilian allies, whom Khan claims engineered his removal from power at the request of the U.S.

The political struggle escalated on August 5, 2023, when Khan was sentenced to three years in prison on corruption charges and taken into custody for the second time since his ouster. Khan’s defenders dismiss the charges as baseless. The sentence also blocked Khan, Pakistan’s most popular politician, from contesting elections.

Since Khan’s imprisonment in August 2023, his supporters held major protests in Pakistan. The latest occurred about two weeks ago, on November 26. That protest was forcefully dispersed by Pakistan’s military.

To explore these developments, Dimitri Lascaris spoke with Amanullah Tariq. Tariq is a host on the Eon Podcast and is based in Lahore, Pakistan.

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