Daily Times

A great game of deception is being conducted with three false planks: the US is against Imran Khan; the establishment is neutral and not siding with Imran Khan; MBS of Saudi Arabia is cold-shouldering the US relations. All false claims and plain lies to cover the intense overt and covert cooperation of the US, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia.

The establishment is not neutral in the vote of no-confidence against Imran Khan. The whole drama of the vote of no-confidence is being conducted to give a certificate of neutrality to the establishment. Whether it is the PTI, PPP, PML-N, or PML-Q government in Pakistan and its provinces, it is the establishment who controls political developments and it will continue in the foreseeable future as well. The whole vote of no-confidence drama is being staged to give the certificate of neutrality to the establishment.

This certificate of neutrality is needed since post-Panama judgment, the establishment has been marked as the institution that ousted Nawaz Sharif and brought in Imran Khan to power in 2018. There are serious allegations of pre and post rigging of the 2018 general elections in Pakistan on the behest of the establishment. Therefore, now the establishment is trying to receive a certificate of neutrality from all the political parties in Pakistan, especially by distancing itself from PTI.

Pakistan’s establishment is not against Imran Khan. He is their man. All banter of tensions on the issue of extension and appointment of DG ISI last year are just smokescreen statements to give the impression that Imran Khan can act independent of the influence of the establishment. He cannot and neither could any other politician. Imran is particularly the establishment’s man and there are no so-called civil-military tensions.

Moreover, Pak-US establishments seem to have the policy of “cooperate-cooperate; deny-deny.” Imran Khan and his cabinet members said on the record in interviews that they would never give military bases to the US post-Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. Yet, CNN broke the story some time after these public denials that Pakistan and the US are finalising an agreement to give bases to the US.

When 9/11 happened, the first thing President Bush did was to safely evacuate the Saudi elite out of the US.

Similarly, Pakistani establishment denied of its involvement in the US drone attacks on Pakistan northern border during the War on Terror but there were press reports that US establishment kept Pakistan’s establishment informed of its drone attacks in the border region.

On Osama Bin Laden killing, both the US and Pakistani governments denied that Pakistan had any prior knowledge of the American raid in Abbottabad. Even Obama denied it in public. Yet, the famous investigative journalist Seymour Hersh broke the story some years ago that an American raid was conducted in collaboration with Pakistan’s establishment. Field evidence supports this theory.

The Pakistani government and establishment are very close to the US and the West. Both need each other for their strategic interests. A lover-like discourse is being conducted in international relations by stating that Biden is not calling Imran Khan and MBS of Saudi Arabia is not taking calls from Biden. All talk of the US being against Imran Khan is pure deception.

Eminent journalist Najam Sethi has given another name to this deception. In a recent tweet, he called Imran Khan “dramabaz,” and said he is playing “mind games.”

Imran Khan is not pursuing any independent foreign policy. Nawaz Sharif pursued an independent foreign policy by bringing in CPEC. Imran Khan first tried to block the launch of CPEC through his dharna in 2014 that delayed the visit of the Chinese leadership for some months. When Imran Khan came to power in 2018, progress on CPEC considerably slowed down. Nawaz Sharif was punished for his independent foreign policy through his removal from office. The Pakistani establishment and the US and the West have very close cooperation and PTI is part of it. All talk of Imran Khan of foreign powers being against him is pure deception.

The US was the “top donor” to Pakistan during 2019-2020 while PTI was in power. This support was given to the budget through grants. The US has given USD 5 billion to Pakistan in civilian assistance and USD 1 billion in emergency humanitarian assistance since 2009. This is in addition to the billions of dollars of overt and covert military aid to Pakistan and civilian assistance during Musharraf era during the War on Terror post 9/11. The US is also the major trading partner of Pakistan. All talk of the US-Pakistan rifts is pure “mind games” to borrow Najam Sethi’s phrase.

Trump was very close to the Saudi government and royalty during his term. Biden, despite his public pronouncements to the contrary, has sold more arms to Saudi Arabia in its war with Yemen than even Trump. Britain is also the major exporter of arms to Saudi Arabia. All talk of MBS not taking Biden’s call and relations cooling off between the US and Saudi Arabia is pure deception and nothing else. Britain is also equally beholden to Saudi Arabia. These are establishment-to-establishment relations and are not marked by one presidency or term in the office. These are permanent country-level relations between the permanent parties of countries i.e. their establishments. When 9/11 happened, the first thing President Bush did was to safely evacuate the Saudi elite out of the US.

The question is why the US, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are involved in such a detailed great game of deception? What do they have up their sleeves?

The writer is an Islamabad-based social scientist and can be reached at fskcolumns @gmail.com