Pakistan: Washington’s Regime Change Operation Temporarily Blocked

Hours before a no-confidence vote was scheduled for the purpose of removing Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan from office, he dissolved parliament on April 3 and called for early elections. The opposition challenged his action, and has taken the case to the Supreme Court, requesting that the dissolution be ruled unconstitutional. If his action is allowed to stand, an election will be held in 90 days.

Khan’s allies described those behind the no-confidence move as “the friends of America” and “traitors to their country”. According to Khan himself, Assistant U.S. Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu was involved in the “foreign conspiracy” to topple the government through a no-confidence vote. Lu had reportedly delivered the threat to the Pakistani Ambassador to the U.S. Other reports indicate that an unnamed U.S. official said further that U.S.-Pakistani relations “will improve” when Khan is gone.

The Washington Post, as we know, has repeatedly polemicized on behalf of regime change against governments which reject the demands emanating from proponents of the “Rules-Based Order”. In this case, the Washington daily blamed the problem on Khan himself, claiming he “mismanaged the economy”, has an appetite for “political confrontation”, and – finally getting to the fundamental reason – that he has engaged in efforts “to shift foreign policy away from the U.S. and toward authoritarian regimes”. Indeed, Imran Kahn has refused to support the U.S.-NATO denunciations of Russia and the sanctions policy against Moscow, preferring to avoid taking sides and remaining outside of geopolitical manipulation; and he has made a close alliance with Xi Jinping and China. His offer to mediate between the U.S. and China has been ignored by American officials, who are pressuring China to break its alliance with Russia.

The Post adds one additional reason to want to topple Khan: his alleged plan to move Pakistan from a parliamentary system to a presidential system. Given that Pakistan’s prime ministers have routinely failed to serve a full term, as the parliamentary system is easily influenced by private interests and foreign interference, such a change would give a President greater independence and means to fight for the interests of the Pakistani people.

Khan has called on the youth of Pakistan to rally behind him to secure the future of an independent, sovereign nation. He recalled the role of Washington in the death of Pakistan’s former President and PM Ali Bhutto who was removed from office in a coup in 1977 and subsequently hanged in 1979. U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger had threatened Bhutto directly that if he did not cancel construction of a nuclear reprocessing plant, the U.S. administration would make a “horrible example” of Pakistan. Khan’s dissolution of parliament was taken as a defense of his nation from the geopolitical heirs of Kissinger.