A man watches news channels broadcasting a live address to the nation by Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan in Islamabad, Pakistan, Thursday, March 31, 2022.
According to media reports on Friday, Pakistan summoned a senior US diplomat here and lodged a strong protest over the alleged “interference” by the US in its internal affairs.
The US State Department on Thursday strongly rejected Prime Minister Imran Khan’s remarks on Washington’s role in an alleged foreign conspiracy to oust him from power.
In a live address to the nation, 69-year-old Khan discussed a ‘danger letter’ and termed it as part of a foreign conspiracy to oust him as he was not acceptable to follow an independent foreign policy. He took the name of America on the back of the threatening letter, which seemed to be slip of tongue.
Dunya News quoted sources as saying that the US diplomat was summoned by the Foreign Office (FO) over a “threatening letter” that warned of dire consequences if the opposition’s no-confidence motion against Khan fails. This step has been taken after a decision of the National Security Council (NSC) of Pakistan on Thursday.
The Foreign Office also handed over a letter of protest to a US diplomat over the language used by a foreign official during formal communication. The report said the US diplomat was told that “interference in Pakistan’s internal affairs is unacceptable”.
The NSC decided to issue strong demarcations to the ‘country’ which, in a conversation, expressed displeasure over Pakistan’s policy on Ukraine and later Pakistan’s ambassador to the US Masood Khan sent a letter to the Foreign Office on the issue.
Prime Minister Khan linked the letter with a no-confidence motion against him by the opposition in the National Assembly. A vote of no confidence is to be held in the National Assembly on Sunday.
Khan’s address came at a turning point in his political career when he lost majority after defecting from his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party. Two of his allies also withdrew their support and joined the opposition.
The US has insisted that it did not send any letter to Pakistan on the current political situation in the country as it sought to refute allegations of US involvement in the no-confidence motion against the Imran Khan-led government.
Khan met with President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin on February 24, the day the Russian leader ordered a “special military operation” against Ukraine. Khan also became the first Pakistani prime minister to visit Russia in 23 years after former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s visit to Moscow in 1999.