Embattled Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan recently claimed to be in possession of a letter proving the existence of a foreign-funded effort to overthrow his government. According to reports, the contents come from a cable sent by the Pakistani Embassy in the US concerning the meeting that an official had with their American counterparts. Their hosts allegedly told them that bilateral relations will be affected if the incumbent leader remains in office. The reports also claim that the US expressed displeasure with Pakistan’s rapid rapprochement with Russia, among other issues.

While it’s likely impossible to verify the contents of that reported letter, there should be no doubt that America hates Prime Minister Khan’s independent policies. He’s bravely defied the pressure that the US-led West put upon his government since winning the 2018 elections, including most recently by condemning those nearly two dozen European Ambassadors in Islamabad who demanded that he publicly criticize Russia over its ongoing special military operation in Ukraine. By doing so, Prime Minister Khan broke Pakistan free from the West’s post-colonial neo-imperial chains.

The US has always considered Pakistan to be nothing more than a regional proxy whose loyalty can be bought and thus convinced to sacrifice its objective interests for its patron’s sake. That’s always been the case until Prime Minister Khan entered office and worked in close coordination with his country’s permanent military, intelligence, and diplomatic bureaucracies (“deep state”) to finally liberate this proud South Asian state. Since then, he’s strengthened Pakistan’s ties with multipolar powers across the world and flexed his country’s strategic autonomy through its principled neutrality towards Russia.

Those Pakistani journalists who are now acting as if there’s no credence whatsoever to the Prime Minister’s very strong innuendo that it’s none other than the US that’s behind this latest opposition-led effort to unseat his government are gaslighting their audience. They’re trying to convince them that the incumbent’s independent policies weren’t ever of any concern to the declining unipolar hegemon that used to control their country as a vassal state. This also implies that the US has no political influence whatsoever in Pakistan and doesn’t practice a policy of regime change.

Those folks should be publicly challenged by their audience to account for their gaslighting since no objective observer, even those that are critical of Prime Minister Khan, can seriously agree with the innuendo being pushed by those figures. They’re functioning less as journalists and more as “useful idiots” of this US-supported regime change effort (at the very least) for whatever their reasons may be. It’s one thing to be critical of the Prime Minister and another to dismiss all talk of American meddling in Pakistan, especially that which is advanced to punish the country for its independent policies as of late.

Anyone who acts as if the Pakistan Stream Gas Pipeline (PSGP) and February 2021’s agreement to build a Pakistan-Afghanistan-Uzbekistan (PAKAFUZ) railway, both of which are Russian-supported multipolar flagship projects, aren’t inimical to the US’ regional hegemonic interests is flat-out lying. They can’t cogently explain why the US wouldn’t be bothered by Pakistan flexing its strategic autonomy in ways that mutually benefit itself and America’s Russian rival, nor can they explain why the US wouldn’t want to restore its hegemonic dominance over Pakistan.

In fact, the US has all the more reason to pursue this end nowadays after its Indian strategic partner bravely defied the unprecedented pressure upon it by also practicing a policy of principled neutrality towards Russia, one so impressive that even Prime Minister Khan recently praised it. America therefore lost what it hitherto took for granted as its newly envisioned regional proxy state that was intended to replace Pakistan and simultaneously advance the US’ anti-Chinese and eventually also anti-Russian interests at New Delhi’s expense. That grand strategic setback only accelerated its plans for Pakistan.

To be absolutely clear, this observation doesn’t mean that every single person pushing for Prime Minister Khan’s removal – including those opposition figures who support this – is a so-called “American agent” but just that this sequence of regime change events very clearly serves the US’ interests. Those Pakistani journalists who are gaslighting their audience by acting as if there’s no credence to the Prime Minister’s innuendo about America being behind this scheme and associated reports to that effect are violating their professional ethics for reasons that only they can account for if publicly challenged to.

Nevertheless, it’s unlikely that those who are already lying will finally tell the truth if the grassroots pressure upon them becomes unbearable. They’ll probably still lie or try to deflect by claiming that those like the author who accuse them of lying and functioning as “useful idiots” of American intelligence (at the very least) are so-called “Russian agents” or whatever. Those Pakistanis who sincerely want to better understand what’s happening in their country regardless of their political disposition would do well to never forget those journalists who just so shamelessly lied to them.

They’re self-interested careerists who’ll seemingly say whatever they can to advance their own interests at the expense of their audience obtaining an objective understanding of anything. These folks can’t be trusted since they’ve proven that their loyalties lie to themselves (if not to others who they don’t feel comfortably publicly acknowledging) and not their audience or their profession. This isn’t a problem that’s exclusive to Pakistan but it takes on a global importance in the present context considering the grand strategic significance of the US’ reported regime change attempt against Prime Minister Khan.

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Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Voice of East.

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