Pakistan Files Official Protest to U.S. for Blatant Interference in Internal Affairs

April 1, 2022 (EIRNS)—“We now have given a demarche to the American embassy” protesting its blatant interference in the country’s affairs, Prime Minister Imran Khan told Pakistan’s ARY TV today, in an exclusive interview. So much for any doubts about which “powerful country” is threatening to overthrow his government.

The decision to file had been taken by the National Security Cabinet on March 31, after it was briefed on the report filed by a Pakistani Ambassador to the Foreign Ministry, reporting on “the formal communication by a senior official of a foreign country ... in a formal meeting” with the Ambassador to that country, that if Imran Khan was not removed from office, Pakistan would face “difficulties,” even, according to Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar, “horrific consequences.” The ouster of the PM, however, would be “a good result,” the ambassador was reportedly told.

Khan has pointed out that the official doing the threatening specifically referenced removing Khan through a no-confidence vote, before the opposition parties had even filed for that vote, thus proving that the vote to oust him is directed from abroad.

In the midst of opposition charges that Khan’s refusal “to repair our relations” with the United States makes him a “security threat,” Information Minister Fawad Chaudry reported today that Khan’s security has been beefed up, after security agencies had reported a plot to assassinate him. Chaudry had warned on March 29 that this was not the first time violent efforts had been made to oust a Pakistani Prime Minister. He cited the killing of Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan, the hanging of Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and President General Ziaul Haq’s death in a plane crash.

The only reason given by the senior official threatening Pakistan was that “Imran Khan decided to go to Russia on his own,” Khan told the nation in his national address on Thursday, March 31. He noted that the opposition is also criticizing him for telling the United States “absolutely not” to its reported demands for the U.S. to have military bases in Pakistan.

“I only said that ‘we are with you in peace but not in war’ because our foreign policy is independent. I don’t talk against anyone. I only say that my biggest responsibility is the 220 million Pakistanis,” Khan said. The no-confidence vote will be held on Sunday, April 3,

“and a decision will be taken about the direction of this country.... I want the entire nation to see on that day who sold their consciences. There is looted money being used to buy off people, and this is happening before the entire nation. This is a transaction of their consciences, their country and its sovereignty.... The people will neither forget nor forgive you. Neither will they forgive those who are handling you. The people will always remember that you sold your country. Through a foreign conspiracy, you tried to topple a government that had an independent foreign policy.”