March 31—On March 27, speaking to a “gargantuan” rally in Islamabad of supporters of his government, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan reported that his government has a letter in hand proving that a “foreign conspiracy” is directing and financing the pending no-confidence vote against his government, that the foreign power seeks to change Pakistan’s foreign policy, and that he has been personally threatened. “Attempts are being made through foreign money to change the government in Pakistan…. We know from what places attempts are being to pressure us. We have been threatened in writing, but we will not compromise on national interest,” he told the assembled people.
Khan, according to Republic World’s report, then compared the threats against him to the 1979 execution of former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto after he had been overthrown.
This is explosive. The execution of Bhutto was understood by nationalist leaders worldwide at the time to have been ordered by the British oligarchy’s Malthusian apparatus within the U.S. government, part of a wave of coups and assassinations unleashed against developing nations standing up for their sovereign right to develop. As Prime Minister, Bhutto was overthrown in July 1977, soon convicted of murder, jailed and tortured for nearly two years, and finally hanged to death. He succeeded in smuggling out of his jail cell a devastating document, known as “The Pakistan Papers: White Papers or White Lies,” which recounted how his torture and overthrow followed Henry Kissinger’s threat, delivered personally to Bhutto, that he “would make a terrible example of Pakistan,” if it did not give up its nuclear energy program. It was EIR News Service which published excerpts of his revelations when other Western agencies refused to publish them.
On Wednesday, Khan briefed a group of journalists and his cabinet on the content of the foreign “letter.” The letter “threatened”regime change in Pakistan" because of concern over his Feb. 24 visit to Russia, Ary News reported. A journalist present described the letter as “a conversation between Pakistani officials and officials of another country…. They said that Europe and the U.S. are not happy with Pakistan’s stance on Russia and Ukraine.”
Ary News reported that Khan had told the journalists, that “according to the letter, problems for Pakistan will increase, if the no-confidence motion against PM Imran Khan fails.”
The same day, one of the government’s small coalition parties announced that they planned to vote with the opposition in the April 3 no-confidence vote, potentially tipping the vote against Khan. And the Islamabad High Court informed the Prime Minister that making the details of a private document public would be a violation of his oath of office—invoking the Official Secrets Act of 1923, when Pakistan was part of Britain’s Indian subcontinent colony!
Khan has not capitulated. Today he chaired a meeting of the National Security Committee (with the military high command included) which “decided that Pakistan will issue a strong demarche to the country in question both in Islamabad and in the country’s capital through proper channel in keeping with diplomatic norms,” and that the parliament’s National Security Committee would also be briefed in an closed-door meeting. He then proceeded to give a national television address to inform the entire nation that he was being threatened for having visited Russia, and naming the U.S. as the source of the letter— a “slip” he quickly corrected, saying “oh, not America but a foreign country I can’t name. I mean from a foreign country, we received a message.”
Forced to respond publicly, a State Department spokesperson told Asian News International today that “there is no truth to these allegations. We are closely following developments in Pakistan. We respect and support Pakistan’s constitutional process and the rule of law.”
