JUST IN: State Department Pressured Pakistan To Oust PM Over Ukraine War Neutrality, Documents Reveal

The U.S. State Department encouraged elements of the Pakistani government to remove populist prime minister Imran Khan due to his neutrality on the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, documents uncovered by The Intercept have revealed.

On March 7, 2022, a meeting took place between the Pakistani ambassador to the United States and two State Department officials. During the meeting, State Department officials provided assurances of warmer relations with Pakistan Khan was ousted from power.

One month later, Khan was removed in a vote of no confidence in an effort that is believed to have been organized by Pakistan’s military, which has long held significant influence over the nation’s politics. Most recently on August 5, Khan was sentenced to three years in prison on corruption charges after being arrested for the second time since he was removed from power.

The Intercept has now obtained the text of a Pakistani cable, known internally as a “cypher,” that was transmitted by the Pakistani ambassador after the 2022 meeting. The document, marked “secret,” includes an account of the meeting between Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu and then-Pakistani ambassador to the United States Asad Majeed Khan.

The document quotes Lu saying that “people here and in Europe are quite concerned about why Pakistan is taking such an aggressively neutral position (on Ukraine), if such a position is even possible. It does not seem such a neutral stand to us.”

“I think if the no-confidence vote against the Prime Minister succeeds, all will be forgiven in Washington because the Russia visit is being looked at as a decision by the Prime Minister,” Lu said, according to the document. “Otherwise,” he continued, “I think it will be tough going ahead.

Lu then insinuated that Pakistan could be isolated if Khan remains in power. “I cannot tell how this will be seen by Europe but I suspect their reaction will be similar,” Lu said.

The 2022 meeting took place just weeks after the Russian Armed Forces invaded wider Ukraine. Just days before the meeting on March 2, Lu was questioned by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the the neutrality of India, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan in the Ukraine conflict.