Media: US contributed to the removal of the former prime minister of Pakistan because of his position on Ukraine

The United States pressured the government of Pakistan to remove former Prime Minister Imran Khan from office due to his neutral position on the conflict in Ukraine, writes The Intercept.

Such a call, according to the publication, citing Pakistani internal documents, was voiced by representatives of the US State Department, including Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu, at a meeting with the Pakistani Ambassador on March 7, 2022. The State Department allegedly promised warmer relations with this country in the event of the removal of Khan and isolation – if he remains in power. The no-confidence vote against Khan came a month after that meeting.

At the meeting, according to the document, Lou explicitly stated US dissatisfaction with Pakistan’s position on the conflict in Ukraine. The document quoted Lou as saying that “People here and in Europe are quite concerned about why Pakistan is taking such an aggressively neutral stance” towards the conflict. As the newspaper notes, after the departure of the ex-premier, Pakistan’s position has changed, and its relations with the United States have indeed improved.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller, commenting on this information to the publication, said that concern was expressed at the meeting about Khan’s visit to Moscow on February 23-24, 2022. “Allegations that the United States interfered in internal decisions about the leadership of Pakistan are false” , he added.

On August 7, a Pakistani court sentenced former prime minister and leader of the opposition Movement for Justice party Imran Khan to three years in prison and a fine. The court charged Khan with selling foreign gifts worth 140 million Pakistani rupees ($635,000) and withholding information about these transactions.

Authorities tried to arrest Khan on this charge as early as May, but his detention then led to mass protests in the country, as a result of which at least 2,000 people were arrested and five were killed.

Now Khan’s party occupies 30 of 342 seats in the lower house of the Pakistani parliament and is the largest opposition force. Khan himself was the prime minister of Pakistan from 2018 to 2022 and was removed from power after a vote of no confidence was announced.

According to Khan himself, the reason for the removal was the corruption of his political opponents, against which he fought, and pressure from the United States, dissatisfied with his rapprochement with Russia.