In this episode of the Multipolarista podcast, Benjamin Norton is joined by Pakistani scholar Junaid S. Ahmad to discuss how Pakistan’s elected Prime Minister Imran Khan was overthrown in a US-backed coup aimed at reversing his independent foreign policy – like his close alliance with China, improved relations with Russia and Iran, and staunch support for Palestine.
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Who is Pakistan’s Imran Khan? From athlete to protester of US wars to overthrown prime minister
Read Junaid’s article “Pakistan warns of foreign-backed regime-change attempt, to disrupt China/Russia alliance”
Pakistan’s opposition is trying to overthrow Prime Minister Imran Khan with a no-confidence motion.
Khan says he has proof of foreign funding for a regime-change op to reverse his independent foreign policy – especially his alliance with China and Russiahttps://t.co/wdIqWDlqss
— Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) April 1, 2022
Al Seaquist
2022-04-17 at 01:23
The US/EU oligarchs are scared. Their worldwide financial monopoly has been threatened by Eurasian progressive economic integration. The resource plunder, and resulting perpetual poverty, of The Global South is ending. This is creating uncertainty and subsequent fear among western ‘elites’.
Fazal Rahman
2022-04-24 at 01:40
Imran Khan has proven himself to be a totally shameless liar, Orwellian demagogue, subverter of democratic, judicial, and constitutional processes, and distorter and perverter of facts – all in his life-long obsession with gaining and remaining in power at any cost.
Following facts are from my article of April 17, 2022, with the following link:
https://imperialismandthethirdworld.wordpress.com/2022/04/17/factual-and-logical-information-about-the-ouster-of-imran-khan-and-his-government-through-the-no-confidence-vote-in-the-pakistani-parliament/
Not everything that happens in the world can be attributed to the US actions. There is absolutely no evidence that the US was involved in the joint opposition’s no-confidence vote against the Pakistan Prime Minister, Imran Khan, who had occupied that position through rigged elections, with the support of powerful military, which is the real power underneath the appearances of civilian governments in Pakistan, and has also ruled directly in military dictatorships in much of the country’s history. Imran Khan was known as the selected Prime Minister, and his government was called a hybrid government, jointly run by the military and civilians, under the domination of military.
During his rule, he mostly did the opposite of what he had promised to get elected. His big claims of creating millions of jobs, millions of affordable houses, reduction of poverty, elimination of corruption, and creating a Naya Pakistan (New Pakistan), etc., all proved to be full of hot air. What actually happened was the reverse in all these areas. He gathered rich, influential, and traditional politicians in his inner circle and placed them in all the important and powerful positions. During the elections, he claimed that such candidates were the only electables and therefore would be given his party’s tickets. He made the country more dependent on IMF, World Bank, the West, China, and Saudi Arabia, and even appointed an IMF man to the top position of the Pakistan State Bank. He complied with all the dictates of IMF in running the political economy of Pakistan, in exchange for a $6 billion loan. It was one of the worst slaveries, imposed on a country of 220 million people, for a paltry sum of $6 billion. Under Saudi pressure and threats, in December 2019, he reversed his decision to attend a conference of leaders of Muslim countries in Malaysia. These were some of the real interferences in Pakistan’s external and internal affairs. During his government, all the major subsidies and tax incentives were given to big businesses and corporations, especially to the construction companies.
Eric Arthur Blair
2023-12-22 at 15:37
1. Official documents prove the totally illegitimate coup against Khan was backed by the US. https://theintercept.com/2023/08/09/imran-khan-pakistan-cypher-ukraine-russia/
Why? US state department official Donald Lu complained Khan was “aggressively neutral”
2. Khan was and remains the democratic Pakistanis people’s choice for leader.