New US and Pakistani documents acquired by The Intercept allegedly reveal that the US helped Pakistan get an IMF bailout with a secret arms deal for Ukraine. Because of that, Pakistan’s military postponed elections, stepped up a brutal crackdown, and jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan.
The brutal arrest of Imran Khan led to violent protests. We reported this in August, but new documents appear to confirm it.
The arms deal was made so US taxpayers could pay for the arms and then send them to Ukraine. Our government – US political and financial elites – does this in secret if the article is correct.
The deal also put in a somewhat Ukraine war-friendly government.
According to authors Ryan Grim and Murtaza Hussain:
“Harsh structural policy reforms demanded by the IMF as terms for its recent bailout kicked off an ongoing round of protests in the country. Major strikes have taken place throughout Pakistan in recent weeks in response to the measures.”
The political crisis in Pakistan has been ongoing for a year-and-a-half.
The US State Department diplomats were allegedly angry over Pakistan’s “aggressively neutral” stance on the Ukraine war under Khan. They warned of dire consequences if Khan remained in power and promised “all would be forgiven” if he were removed.
“Pakistani democracy may ultimately be a casualty of Ukraine’s counteroffensive.”
“Since Khan’s ouster, Pakistan has emerged as a useful supporter of the U.S. and its allies in the war, assistance that has now been repaid with an IMF loan.
“The emergency loan allowed the new Pakistani government to put off a looming economic catastrophe and indefinitely postpone elections — time it used to launch a nationwide crackdown on civil society and jail Khan.”
The US government claims it supports democracy, but may have destroyed it in Pakistan. All this for Ukraine.
“Pakistani democracy may ultimately be a casualty of Ukraine’s counteroffensive,” Arif Rafiq, a nonresident scholar at the Middle East Institute and specialist on Pakistan, told The Intercept.
The article also points out:
The weapons deals were brokered, according to the documents, by Global Military Products, a subsidiary of Global Ordnance, a controversial arms dealer whose entanglements with less-than-reputable figures in Ukraine were the subject of a recent New York Times article.
We can’t prove or disprove this at this point, but we do know for certain there is ZERO oversight of the munitions we send to Ukraine.
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