How U.S. 'Handled' Pak: Full Cable Surfaces: Pressure Over Mediator Role | WION

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:00]Shifting our focus to Pakistan now, a classified Pakistani diplomatic cable published in full by a media outlet now, it seems to show how US handled Pakistan and put pressure for the ouster of Imran Khan as Prime Minister. Drop site has released the original cipher cable I0678, which talks about how Khan angered US for the first time in 2021.

[00:00:25]Then CIA Director William Burns had flown to Islamabad to meet the then Prime Minister. He wanted to secure Pakistan territory for US drone bases to use against targets in Afghanistan after the planned American withdrawal.

[00:00:40]But the meeting never happened as the Prime Minister's office, citing protocol, said Khan would only take calls from his counterparts. In an interview with Axios that month, Khan said he was never going to allow any sort of action from Pakistani territory against Afghanistan. The cable suggests that Pakistan's military at the time concluded he was isolating the country.

[00:01:03]It also claims that in July of the same year, and without the then Prime Minister's knowledge, a former Central Intelligence Agency Islamabad Station Chief was retained as a lobbyist in Washington. It was an early sign that Pakistan generals were beginning to move independently of their own elected government. According to the leaked document, Russia's invasion of Ukraine further worsened things. On 24th of February in 2024, the day of the full-scale invasion, Khan was in Moscow despite US pressure to cancel the trip.

[00:01:37]A leaked call reported by Drop Site allegedly shows that then US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan urged Pakistan to clearly align with the US on the Ukraine war, but that then Prime Minister reportedly did not comply. In fact, days later, Pakistan abstained from UN General Assembly resolution condemning the invasion joining China, India and much of the global south. The leaked document talks about the March 2022 meeting between Pakistan's ambassador in Washington, Asad Majeed Khan and Donald Lu, the US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs.

[00:02:18]According to the cable, Lu told the ambassador that Washington's grievances with Islamabad could be set aside. All will be forgiven if Khan were removed from office through a no confidence vote.

[00:02:31]Khan was removed on 9th of April in a no confidence vote backed by Pakistan's military. His party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf was subsequently outlawed, stripped of its electoral symbol ahead of the 2024 general elections and barred from fielding candidates under its own banner.

[00:02:50]He, along with his wife Bushra Bibi, were jailed on a series of corruption, contempt and national security charges.

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