Pakistan's NSC said imran Khan's ouster was "irrelevant to the US conspiracy" and that the political battle had not ended

The Paper's reporter Xu Zhenhua

Recently, Pakistan's National Security Council (NSC) said the agency did not endorse former Prime Minister Imran Khan's allegations that the United States conspired to overthrow its government.

Qatar's Al Jazeera reported on April 23 that the Pakistan National Security Commission is composed of senior civilian officials and military leaders. The National Security Council denied Imran Khan's allegation that "the United States conspired to overthrow its government through a parliamentary vote of no confidence."

It is worth noting that Pakistan's National Security Commission, chaired by pakistan's prime minister, gave two very different statements about what he called the "U.S. conspiracy" before and after Imran Khan stepped down.

The National Security Commission of Pakistan has made mixed statements

Shabaz's office said on April 22 that Pakistani intelligence had informed the NSC that no evidence had been found to support Imran Khan's "conspiracy theories." On the same day, the current Prime Minister's Office of Shabaz issued a statement saying that the NSC, after reviewing the contents of the communications and other materials, believed that Imran Khan's ouster was not related to the conspiracy. However, on March 31, then-Prime Minister Imran Khan convened a meeting of the National Security Council to brief "a senior foreign official" on formal communications with Pakistan's ambassador to the country, which the NSC also expressed serious concern and considered making strong representations.

The April 22 conclusion of Shabaz's office failed to be endorsed by Imran Khan and his supporters. Assad Omar, former minister of planning and development in imran Khan's government, said Shabbaz had declared when he was leader of the opposition in the National Assembly that if interference in Pakistan's internal affairs proved to exist, Shabaz would stand with Imran Khan against foreign interference, Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported on April 25.

"The NSC has twice confirmed the existence of interference. Imran Khan will not allow you (Shabaz) and him (Imran Khan) to stand together; you (Shabaz) should leave the Prime Minister's seat and call elections. Omar wrote on Twitter.

The controversy surrounding the "menace conspiracy" has been the focus of recent rivalry between the two major political forces, Imran Khan and Shabaz. According to a previous Xinhua news agency, on the evening of March 31, the office of then Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan issued a statement saying that Imran Khan presided over a meeting of the National Security Council on the same day to report on the formal communication between a senior foreign official and Pakistan's ambassador to the country. The NSC is gravely concerned about the situation and considers that the use of "non-diplomatic terms" by senior officials of a given country amounts to flagrant interference in Pakistan's internal affairs, which is unacceptable under any circumstances. The NSC decided to make strong representations through appropriate channels consistent with diplomatic norms.

Al Jazeera reported that Imran Khan blocked the first vote of no confidence in the National Assembly on April 3 because his NSC endorsed allegations of "foreign conspiracy to interfere in the Pakistani government." On the same day, Qasim Suri, deputy speaker of Pakistan's National Assembly, who presided over the meeting, vetoed a motion of no confidence in Imran Khan proposed by the opposition coalition at the time. Pakistani President Arif Alvi has since dissolved the country's parliament on the advice of Imran Khan and called for early elections.

The April 7 ruling of the Supreme Court of Pakistan overturned Suri's 3rd veto and Alvi's decision to dissolve parliament, saying both constitute unconstitutional. In the end, a vote of no confidence against Imran Khan was passed in the National Assembly, and he was forced to step down.

With the election of the chairman of the Pakistan Muslim League (Sharif) Shabaz in the parliamentary prime ministerial election on April 11, Shabaz became the new chairman of the NSC. The NSC under his leadership took a very different approach to the "threat conspiracy" and formally concluded on the 22nd that the "conspiracy does not exist".

What is the basis for the "interference conspiracy"?

According to Al Jazeera, Imran Khan believes that the United States is behind his ouster. Imran Khan visited Russia and met with President Vladimir Putin on February 24, when Russia launched a "special military operation" against Ukraine. Imran Khan said that his insistence on visiting Russia in spite of U.S. opinions has caused dissatisfaction on the PART, which denies the allegations.

According to Pakistan's "International News" reported on April 22, on March 27, Imran Khan showed for the first time the existence of the US "threat letter" at a public rally in the face of the pressure of the no-confidence motion. According to the JEM party, Imran Khan's government was overthrown because of its insistence on an independent foreign policy.

The Diplomat magazine said in an April 13 article that in the accounts of Imran Khan and former Pakistani Foreign Minister Qureshi, U.S. National Security Adviser Sullivan had called the Pakistani side and asked Imran Khan to cancel his visit to Russia. Imran Khan did not accept pressure from the United States and even laid a wreath at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moscow, the russian capital.

Imran Khan said his insistence on an independent foreign policy infuriated the Americans, so the U.S. conspired to transform the Pakistani government into a more submissive one.

But the Diplomat article argues that there is no evidence of collusion between the U.S. government and Pakistani lawmakers to get Imran Khan to step down. For example, the US side has not confirmed the existence of Sullivan's telephone warning, and the Palestinian judiciary has not found evidence of the US government bribing Pakistani lawmakers. "The US side is not pleased with Imran Khan's visit to Russia" and "colluding with Pakistani opposition parliamentarians" cannot be equated.

According to comprehensive media reports, Imran Khan held an unclear letter when he made the "US interference conspiracy" allegation on March 27, and it was later learned that the letter originated from a telegram from Asad Majeed, the former Pakistani ambassador to the United States. According to Pakistani media reports, Majid sent a telegram back to Pakistan during his ambassadorship in March this year, and imran Khan's government received the telegram on March 7-8. Allegedly, the cables indicated that U.S. officials had issued threats against Imran Khan's government.

However, according to the Pakistani media "International News" reported on the 24th, the current Pakistani interior minister Rana Sanallah Khan said that Assad Majid has indicated to the National Security Commission that he has not written a telegram discussing the "US conspiracy", and the wording in his telegram has been tampered with. Majid recently left his ambassadorial post and returned to Pakistan, where he reported to the NSC on allegations of conspiracy on April 22.

Rana Khan said that according to Majid's confession, the wording "intervention" in the telegram should have been added by then-Foreign Minister Qureshi.

With the fall of Imran Khan, the military and civilian governments that hold pakistan's core powers tend to deny allegations of "U.S. interference conspiracies." According to Reuters on April 14, Pakistani military spokesman Major General Babar Iftikhar refuted Imran Khan's allegations on the same day.

The military has a pivotal role in Pakistani politics. According to Al Jazeera reported on the 23rd, although the military and Imran Khan denied it, Imran Khan's opponents and other analysts believe that it was the Pakistani military that helped Imran Khan win the 2018 election. However, at the end of 2021, Imran Khan got into a dispute with the military over the appointment of the head of the country's intelligence services, and the military no longer supported Imran Khan.

Since his dismissal on April 10 this year, Imran Khan has held at least three public rallies in which he has repeatedly accused of "foreign conspiracies to overthrow the government" and demanded an early dissolution of the National Assembly and the holding of general elections.

Despite the fact that Shabaz has now taken power and is expected to have elections in the National Assembly as early as 2023, Pakistan's political scene is still difficult to say stable. According to the Dawn newspaper on April 25, Imran Khan's political party, the Justice Movement (PTI), will continue to hold activities on the 26th, leading supporters to launch protests outside the offices of the Pakistan Election Commission across the country.

On April 24, the JEM party also publicly accused shabaz's government of being held accountable for the country's deteriorating electricity supply and diesel shortages in rural areas.

Responsible editor: Hu Zhenqing Photo editor: Jiang Lidong

Proofreader: Ding Xiao