The Intercept has made extensive efforts to authenticate the document. Given the security climate in Pakistan, independent confirmation from sources in the Pakistani government was not possible. The Pakistan Embassy in Washington, D.C., did not respond to a request for comment.

Miller, the State Department spokesperson, said, “We had expressed concern about the visit of then-PM Khan to Moscow on the day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and have communicated that opposition both publicly and privately.” He added that “allegations that the United States interfered in internal decisions about the leadership of Pakistan are false. They have always been false, and they continue to be.”

  •  sub_o   ( @sub_@beehaw.org ) 
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    41 year ago

    Preface: before jumping on me, I’m from global south, not from pakistan, but an ethnic minority that endured the aftereffects of red scare, I’d ask you to calm down first. I’m not American either.

    So, from what I read is:

    I’d assume countries like Russia who wanted Pakistan to support or at least stay neutral when they are invading Ukraine, have done similar thing. I’d assume China who’s been using Pakistan as a buffer against India, also have been doing the same thing. Of course US does exert immense pressure, even when it’s unintentional, due to power dynamics.

    Speaking about power dynamics, don’t jump directly to defend Imran Khan, just because the US is bad, it doesn’t mean that the other side is good. I’ve read disheartening comments that people straight up defending imperial Japan when the video about how US didn’t need to nuke Japan was uploaded.

    So, hear me out, Khan said some shitty things

    • on 24 Sept 2021, Khan remarked that many Pakistani Pashtuns “had strong sympathies with the Afghan Taliban, not because of their religious ideology, but because of Pashtun nationalism.”
    • During his keynote address at the Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s Extraordinary Session of Foreign Ministers on 19 Dec 2021, Khan said not allowing girls to study was part of Afghan culture, and that the world should respect that.

    Does that mean the opposition is good, of course not, nothing is black and white. There are a lot of corrupt politicians who’s gonna take advantage of the condition. Am I doing both sides are bad shtick? Imran Khan is a politician, he doesn’t represent all Pakistanis, and from his remarks I don’t think he represents the Pakistani Pashtuns either, or women for that matter. Focus on the people, they are not perfect, but they just wanna survive.

    So what can we do as outsiders, besides making social media content, monetizing it, and forgetting about them later on?

    Well, if the military situation worsen, there will be a lot of Pakistani expats / students who’d want to get their parents or family to a stabler country, if you know some immigration lawyers, people who have experienced with bringing their families over, and translators who know Urdu, maybe it’s not a bad idea to write down their emails.