Pakistan's Internal Affairs

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has been arrested again and has now been sentenced to prison. Ousted from office in April 2022, he has repeatedly insisted the US played a role in what many view as a bureaucratic coup.

Washington has repeatedly denied and even mocked these claims and yet it's no secret that Washington doesn't like Khan and the bitterness grew exponentially during the period of US withdrawal from Afghanistan, which overlapped with Khan's tenure. The US relationship with Pakistan has been in freefall for some time but there are elements within the Pakistani Establishment and military that want to retain good relations with the United States. Islamabad has long been friendly with China – in part due to mutual adversarial interests vis-à-vis India. During the Cold War, the US-India relationship soured driving Washington and Islamabad together. This common relationship with Pakistan provided a basis for the US-China rapprochement led by Nixon and Kissinger.

The relationship flourished in the 1980's as the US backed Zia-ul-Haq who in turn facilitated the US-sponsored proxy war in Afghanistan. The relationship waned during the 1990's but was re-established (if on dubious grounds) when the US threatened then military ruler Pervez Mursharraf into supporting the new Afghan campaign in the wake of 9/11. By 2011 and the raid on the bin Laden compound in Abbottabad, the relationship had soured once more and continued its decline up until the US withdrawal in 2021 – an event celebrated by Khan. Years of drone warfare, Afghan War spillover, intrigues, and manipulation had produced a great deal of bitterness and resentment.

But with the rise of China and its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the loss of Afghanistan, the position of Pakistan has once more become important – and Khan found himself targeted by the US.

His claims of US involvement were always credible but now solid evidence is emerging to suggest their actual veracity. The notion that he was ousted merely due to the fact that he had taken a neutral stand on Ukraine is ridiculous. The false narrative rests (in part) on the fact that he was in Moscow with Putin on the day of the invasion and didn't condemn it. It is unlikely that he had any kind of advance knowledge. It's true that he has refused to condemn Russia's invasion, but the final straw for the US was probably more in the realm of his pipeline negotiations with Putin. The truth is he was simply hostile to US overtures and not interested in fully restoring the relationship – especially on a subservient basis. For the US, that was enough.

Here's the great irony. The US has not condemned his ouster (and now imprisonment) but instead the State Department has declared this to be an 'internal affair'.

That's rather rich considering the US is not willing to say the same when it comes to a country like Niger – a situation in which the US ridiculously asserts that it has legal obligations to the Niger constitution. Once again Washington's statements are self-serving and hypocritical and demonstrate no principle apart from self-interest. It is just this kind of patronizing inconsistency which so angers the nations of the developing world and turns them away from the United States. The language of liberty and rule of law is farcical and only fools and the corrupt still fall for it.

There is a great contest afoot and sadly the indicators point to a coming large-scale and perhaps global war. Some in the United States are convinced this is going to erupt any moment and even now are in full survivalist/prepper mode. This is short-sighted. Things have the potential to develop (or more properly) degenerate at a fast clip and it must be admitted the long-term prognosis doesn't look very good. But the threat is not imminent – nor is major war inevitable. In the meantime the conflict is already underway (and has been) in a kind of Cold War-reminiscent battle. It's a case of intrigues and proxy war and though the 'big' war hasn't erupted, many are already dying – in fact millions have died in the wars and spin-off wars generated by US actions since 2001 – which has played no small part in setting the current stage. The terrorist attacks were the catalyst for the militarist-driven instability of the day and yet they were not the true cause of America's turn to international aggression, but a means to an end. Khan is a big figure in his own right but on another level he is but a pawn being sacrificed in a larger game between superpowers.

In this case the manipulation is fairly clear for all to see and Khan's supporters are rightly outraged. It's difficult to imagine he will simply serve out his sentence without major political upheaval taking place in Pakistan. The implications are vast and certainly include the already beleaguered Christian community within that country. But for the architects of empire – political instability and violence are acceptable outcomes and fit well within the tolerances of their imperial calculus.

See also:

https://pilgrimunderground.blogspot.com/2022/10/khan-and-us-drones-in-pakistani-airspace.html

https://pilgrimunderground.blogspot.com/2022/04/the-echoes-of-war-in-asia.html

https://pilgrimunderground.blogspot.com/2022/05/the-hydrogen-economy-and-geopolitics-of.html