Letter Gate conspiracy in Pakistan

PM Imran Khan came into power in 2018 with full of slogan of fighting corruption, bringing reforms and changes in the country that never seen before in the history of Pakistan. But in three and half years of his rule reviving the economy, controlling the inflation and promise of bringing the reforms were not seen practically.  Imran Khan came into power with the dream of Naya Pakistan (New Pakistan).

Imran khan’s narrative of Naya Pakistan was died down on the day when he choose electables rather than its political workers. He always talked about Lota Crecy in Pakistan but for the sake of gov’t he prefers to choose Lota’s (taking people from different parties) and gave party ticket to them.

During his three year tenure opposition tried hard to oust him due to inflation and his bad governance but they can not succeed because of their on differences. On 3rd   March 2021 while addressing to the nation PM Imran Khan said he decided to take vote of confidence from the parliament if members of his party not voted in his favor he will respect them and will sit in opposition. He succeeded in confidence motion.

One year later in March 2022, when opposition decided to oust him through vote of no-confidence. Opposition attempt to oust him when the main partners of his coalition quit the govt and join the opposition against the gov’t. Imran Khan  says there is a foreign conspiracy to remove him adding he has a letter of proof.

Now he is talking about foreign conspiracy (letter gate conspiracy) to oust his gov’t but it can not be believed because he says his visit to Russia was not seen good by US and the west and they want to remove him or removal of his gov’t. While showing a letter in a public rally in Islamabad instead of firstly showing it into the national security committee of the country. If we look at the security point of view the security establishment in Pakistan have not found any evidence of external conspiracy, intimidation of interference in Pakistan internal affairs which Imran Khan is talking about. Opposition is also raising question that if he received letter on 7th of March than why he not shared with the security committee or Parliament within next day, why he delayed and showed this in front of public.

The full content of the letter have not been made public yet. But according to gov’t It contains a message purportedly received by “Asad Majeed from Donald Lu, US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs”. 

There is no doubt that Imran Khan visit to Russia was not seen good by US and west and they tried to pressurize Pakistan and demanded to condemn Russian invasion to Ukraine but Pakistan did not do so because Pakistan take neutral stance on Russia-Ukraine conflict. But it does not mean foreign powers or US were ready to remove Imran Khan or his gov’t, they have other options to pressurize Pakistan like in FATF where Pakistan is in grey list, in IMF from where Pakistan is already taking loan and in EU who gave Pakistan GSP plus status.

Imran Khan came up with foreign conspiracy idea quite late after he found that he could not survive in no-confidence vote and he will out of power, then he decided to dissolved the National Assembly. While deputy speaker of his party  stopped the voting and declared opposition lawmaker as a traitor because according to him they conspired with the US.

Opposition is also blaming IK that When he saw united opposition have produced 197 members then they violated the constitution and ran away from vote of no-confidence. Although President has dissolved the parliament with the advice of PM but according to constitution he cannot do that when a  no-confidence motion has been moved  against PM.

IK always said he will not compromise on Pak foreign policy and will not take dictation from the world but if we look in the  past when he decides not to participate in Kula Lumpur summit in December 2019, because of pressure from Saudi Arabia. Another example is, in very recent past when IK gov’t took loan from Saudi Arabia and they gave us loan on 4% interest rate which is 3 time higher than the IMF interest rate. IMF gives loan on 1% interest rate and he took from Saudi Arabia on 4% and they put condition that they can get it back within 72 hours’ notice.

It is clear that  security establishment had given  IK go-ahead before visiting Russia because  without the consent of security establishment he can not complete his visit because there are certain security protocols you have to follow while visiting any country. Making good relations with Russia was a state policy  which was adopted in  new Pak national security policy which says Pakistan will make good relations with Russia and will not involve in any country’s conflict.

Everybody knows the reasons of fall of his gov’t is  that he was continuously being  black mailed by his coalition partners and his right man’s. Most of his party MNA’s were not happy with his governance and rising inflation and they joined hands with opposition against him.  In whole of election campaign he told people he will make reforms in police, judiciary and in all state institution but he failed to do that. opposition take the advantage of this and moved no-confidence motion against him.

There are number of factors that really led to fall of PTI gov’t in Pakistan including gov’t deliberate  making controversial of very respected institution of Pakistan army while in the extension of Army chief and later the appointment of DG ISI. The other factor is foreign Policy and also the governance of Punjab province and the appointment of CM Usman Buzdar in a province which considered the half of Pakistan.

Now Imran Khan is fighting battle of its Narrative of foreign conspiracy or a (letter gate) and the whole of his narrative is based on it. He is trying to build such a narrative to become a political Martyr to save his party repo. Imran Khan has disappointed millions of his voters and supporters through  his governance in the country.  He plunged Pakistan into a major constitutional crisis. what Imran Khan did he is calling it surprise, but it is not a surprise, because he done all this just to protect is own ego, nothing else.

Imran always blamed opposition of being corrupt, thugs, and thieves throughout whole of his elections campaign and then during whole of his tenure. They were put behind the bars over corruption but they released on bail. He called the previous era of Pakistan Peoples party and Muslim league Nawaz the darkest era of decade.  They unite against him because of his bad governance, poor performance, mismanagement of economy, inflation, rising prices and not fulfilling promises which he made to the people of Pakistan. If PTI gov’t had fulfilled 10% of its promises to the people, what Khan had made during election campaign then the opposition never be unit against him. He himself paved the way for opposition to come and unite and bring no confidence motion against him.  The people of Pakistan were very optimistic from Imran khan that he has the ability to brought Pakistan out of problems but their hope broken, he left Pakistan into constitutional crisis.

The matter was in supreme court  and now SC of Pakistan  found that PM Imran Khan move to block the no-confidence vote on 3rd April  was “contrary to the constitution and the law and had no legal effect”. The court also ruled that PM decision to dissolve parliament was invalid  and  ordered the National Assembly to reconvene and hold a no-confidence vote on 9th April 2022. According to constitutional experts  “Khan’s actions do not have constitutional cover, given their basis in a tortured reading of the constitution that is difficult to justify legally”.

Opposition believes that Letter Gate is a gov’t made conspiracy to damage Pakistan’s image internationally.  On the last day of voting Imran khan was ready to do all unconstitutional steps. The governor of Punjab was sacked when he refused to take unconstitutional steps demanded by the federal gov’t. Imran Khan blames US for conspiracy against his gov’t will put negative impact on Pak-US relations. Experts say “Khan’s government should have handled the matter diplomatically, instead of dragging Washington into Pakistan’s internal politics”.

Mansoor Ahmed
Mansoor Ahmed
The writer is Islamabad freelancer and Researcher