Was the US involved in Pakistani PM’s departure, as he claims?
In the aftermath of an off-the-cuff remark made by US President Joe Biden about Russian President Vladimir Putin (“For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power!”) which many believed articulated a policy of regime change, Secretary of State Antony Blinken was compelled to issue a public clarification. “We do not,” Blinken told reporters, “have a strategy of regime change in Russia or anywhere else for that matter.”
Tell that to the supporters of Pakistan’s former Prime Minister, Imran Khan, who this past weekend was removed from power after a vote of no confidence in the Pakistani Parliament which many believe was orchestrated by the United States, who had grown increasingly wary of the former cricket star’s criticism of US policy in the region and the world.
The constitutional crisis which brought down Imran Khan will shape how Pakistan will fit into a new world order that is emerging from the fallout of Russia’s incursion into Ukraine. At the heart of Pakistani crisis is the worsening of the country’s relations with the US. This relationship has always had an element of tension that had been covered over through the maintenance of an alliance of convenience which emerged in the aftermath of 9/11, where both Pakistan and the US found common cause in the defeat of radical Islamic fundamentalism in neighboring Afghanistan. The inability of the US-led coalition to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan led to a growing bitterness inside Pakistan, creating the conditions for Imran Khan’s rise to power in 2018. Khan was supported by the Pakistani military and intelligence services who, like Khan, had grown weary of an American “forever war” in Afghanistan which had bled over onto Pakistani soil, leading to tens of thousands of deaths and domestic unrest.