U.S. meddling in Pakistan provokes mass protest

In August 2023, The Intercept reported that it had obtained a classified Pakistani government document which revealed that, in a meeting held in March 2022, the U.S. State Department had pressured the Pakistani government to remove Imran Khan as Pakistan’s prime minister over his neutrality on the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

One month after that meeting, a no-confidence vote was held in Pakistan’s Parliament, leading to Khan’s removal from power. The vote is believed to have been organized with the backing of Pakistan’s powerful military.

Since Khan’s removal from power, Khan and his supporters have been engaged in a struggle with the military and its civilian allies, whom Khan claims engineered his removal from power at the request of the U.S.

Since Khan’s imprisonment in August 2023, his supporters held major protests in Pakistan. The latest occurred in late November. That protest was violently suppressed by Pakistan’s military.

To explore these developments, I spoke this week with Amanullah Tariq. Tariq is a political analyst on the Eon Podcast and is based in Lahore, Pakistan.