Friday, March 29, 2024 | 13:06 WIB

Analyzing American-Orchestrated Regime Change Crisis in Pakistan

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Jakarta, IO – Pakistan has just successfully thwarted what Prime Minister Imran Khan claimed was an American-orchestrated regime change attempt against him after the country’s parliament rejected the opposition’s no-confidence motion against the country’s incumbent leader on the basis that it represented foreign interference in its internal affairs. The embattled premier accused the U.S. of plotting to overthrow him as punishment for his independent foreign policy: particularly, the rapid rapprochement with America’s Russian rival that he has overseen to since assuming office in 2018. Prime Minister Khan also said that Washington was upset at his decision to visit Moscow in late February. 

According to the Pakistani leader, he is in possession of a letter confirming this regime change attempt against him and even threats to his own life. Reports suggested that the information came from his country’s Embassy in the U.S. after an American official informed their Pakistani counterparts that bilateral ties won’t improve as long as Prime Minister Khan remains in office. It was also allegedly at that time, in early March, that the message was conveyed that his trip to Russia was unacceptable. Reports also claim that Donald Lu, the previously unnamed American official, predicted the no-confidence motion that was tabled the day afterwards, adding credence to suspicions that it was orchestrated by the U.S. 

Objectively speaking, there are genuine reasons why some Pakistanis are upset with their Prime Minister. The economy has taken a heavy hit over the past few years due to the consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, the partisan divide between the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on the one hand and opposition parties Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) (PMLN) and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) on the other have widened as a result of these economic troubles. There are even some who speculate that Prime Minister Khan didn’t legitimately win the 2018 elections but was illegally placed into power by the country’s influential military-intelligence establishment. 

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These preexisting socio-political conditions facilitated the U.S. alleged regime change campaign against Prime Minister Khan by covering up for the foreign hand that he claims was behind the failed no-confidence vote against him. The U.S. has traditionally exerted immense influence over Pakistani affairs, although it has significantly lessened in recent years under the country’s incumbent patriotic leadership. Still, nobody should doubt that the United States still has vast networks of influence across Pakistan, including among its opposition parties and within members of the permanent military, intelligence, and diplomatic bureaucracies (“deep state”), who might sympathize with the U.S. for whatever their reason may be. 

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