US tried to get rid of Imran Khan in 2022, secret telegrams show.

  A US news outlet has gotten its hands on a secret document that shows Washington has been trying to get the former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan fired because he stayed silent in the Ukraine war. The Intercept published a memo that says US State Department officials used threats and promises to try to get Khan removed as prime minister. At a meeting on March 7, 2022, the US State Department urged the Pakistani government to get rid of Khan as prime minister because of his independent foreign policy toward Russia, according to the text of the Pakistani telegram that the Pakistani ambassador from the meeting sent back to Pakistan.

The secret telegram, which is called "Cipher" inside the State Department, shows both the carrot and the stick that the State Department used to try to get rid of Khan. If Khan was taken out of the picture, ties would get better, but if he stayed, he would be left alone. The Intercept said so. "The "Secret" document describes the meeting between State Department officials, including Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of South and Central Asia Affairs Donald Lu, and Asad Majeed Khan, who was Pakistan's ambassador to the United States at the time," the report said. The Foreign Ministry gave strong "encouragement" to those in power in Pakistan to take steps to get rid of Khan. The main reason for this was that Khan was seen as not being on the same side as the US and NATO's proxy war in Russia and Ukraine. Khan did not agree with the war, so moves were taken to stop it. The Intercept said that a Pakistani military source who didn't want to be named gave her the paper. The source said that she had nothing to do with Khan or his party. In the release, US officials said that Pakistan would be cut off from the rest of the world if Khan stayed in power, but that they would "forgive everyone" if he were taken out of power.

It was said that the support came during a meeting in March 2022 between Pakistan's ambassador to the US and two State Department officials. A month after the meeting, Pakistan's government held a vote of no confidence, which led to Khan's impeachment. "I think if the vote of no confidence in the prime minister is successful, everything will be forgiven in Washington because the visit to Russia will be seen as the prime minister's decision," Lu told Ambassador Majeed before the vote, according to the document. "Otherwise," he said, "I think it will be hard to get anywhere." A few days before he was kicked out of office on April 9, 2022, Khan said that an unnamed "foreign power"—clearly the U.S.—was funding a "conspiracy" to overthrow his freely elected government.

Khan said at a big gathering in the capital, Islamabad, that a "foreign power" had given millions of dollars to the opposition parties so they could start a vote of no confidence against him in parliament. At his next rally, Khan said, "Trying to get rid of me is clear US interference in our politics." Khan personally answered European calls for Pakistan to support Ukraine at a rally the day before American and Pakistani diplomats met in Washington, D.C. "Are we going to be your slaves?" Khan yelled at the people. "Tell us what you think of us. That you own us and we will do anything you tell us to do?" he had asked. "We are friends with Russia, and we are also friends with the U.S. We get along with both China and Europe. We are not part of any group or association.

The document says that at the meeting, Lu talked about how Washington was unhappy with Pakistan's position on the Ukraine war. Lu is quoted as saying in the paper, "People here and in Europe are very worried about why Pakistan is being so aggressively neutral (about Ukraine), if that is even possible." We don't think it's a very fair position. Lu also said that he had talked with the US National Security Council and that "it seems perfectly clear that this is the premier's policy." Khan was kicked out of office after a vote of "no confidence" that was likely set up with the help of the strong Pakistani military.