Daily Sabah
April 2, 2022

Pakistan’s PM Khan says might not accept ousting vote, accuses US

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan lashed out at the U.S. for orchestrating tomorrow’s vote in the parliament regarding his ouster, hinting that he might not accept the results and calling on his supporters to take to the streets to protest what he termed a “regime change.”

***

“How can I accept the result when the entire process is discredited?” Khan told a select group of foreign journalists at his office. “Democracy functions on moral authority – what moral authority is left after this connivance?”

“The move to oust me is blatant interference in domestic politics by the United States,” he said, terming it an attempt at “regime change.”

Earlier this week he accused the United States of meddling in Pakistan’s affairs, with local media reporting he had received a briefing letter from Islamabad’s ambassador to Washington recording a senior U.S. official telling him they felt relations would be better if Khan left office.

***

Khan has accused the opposition of conspiring with Washington to remove him because he won’t take the West’s side on global issues against Russia and China. He called his opponents “robbers, cowards, deceivers.”

Hours before he spoke, the head of the army, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, had said Pakistan wanted to expand its ties with Washington, D.C.

U.S. President Joe Biden has not called Khan since taking office…

[W]hile the government has pursued multi-billion dollar development deals with China, the United States’ strategic rival, the army appears keen not to jeopardize relations with Washington, which has in the past supplied it with billions of dollars in military aid.

Bajwa told a security conference in Islamabad that “we share a long history of excellent and strategic relationship with the United States, which remains our largest export market.”