‘All will be forgiven’: How US anger over former Pakistani PM Imran Khan's Russia visit led to his ouster

Leaked Pakistani Secret Doctuments: The document, dated March 7, 2022, records a luncheon meeting between Pakistan’s then-Ambassador to the United States and Donald Lu, the US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia. 

A leaked secret document has now revealed that former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s ouster was planned by the Pakistani Army to please the United States. Newly scrutinised diplomatic records from a classified Grade-II ‘SECRET’ cypher have laid bare the extraordinary geopolitical pressure that preceded the 2022 ouster of Imran Khan. The document details a high-stakes meeting where a senior US official explicitly warned that Pakistan faced severe international isolation unless Khan was removed from power. The transition ultimately unfolded under the heavy shadow of Pakistan’s powerful military establishment, now led by Army Chief General Asim Munir.

The document, dated March 7, 2022, records a luncheon meeting between Pakistan’s then-Ambassador to the United States and Donald Lu, the US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia. The timeline of the meeting is critical: it took place just weeks after Khan’s controversial bilateral visit to Moscow, which coincided exactly with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and only days before opposition parties in Islamabad tabled a decisive no-confidence motion against him.

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The Washington Ultimatum

According to the leaked text, Washington’s fury over Khan's independent foreign policy stance was absolute. Lu explicitly linked the future of bilateral relations to the success of the internal political moves to remove Khan from office.

"I think if the no-confidence vote against the Prime Minister succeeds, all will be forgiven in Washington because the Russia visit is being looked at as a decision by the Prime Minister," Lu is quoted as saying. He added a stark warning for the alternative: "Otherwise, I think it will be tough going ahead... honestly, I think isolation of the Prime Minister will become very strong from Europe and the United States."

The cable reveals that the US state department viewed Khan’s neutrality on the Ukraine crisis not as a calculated state policy, but as a personal maneuver "tied to the current political dramas in Islamabad." The pressure extended to a complete freeze on top-tier diplomatic engagement. When the Pakistani Foreign Minister sought a direct line with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to clarify Pakistan's position, Washington flatly refused. Lu noted that given the "political turmoil in Pakistan, this was not the right time for such engagement."

The Shadow of General Asim Munir

While the cypher highlights the external American trigger, the execution of Khan’s ouster ultimately required internal leverage—a role traditionally played by Pakistan’s military establishment. Though General Qamar Javed Bajwa was the Army Chief at the exact moment of Khan's removal in April 2022, the transition directly paved the way for the ascension of General Asim Munir to the post of Chief of Army Staff (COAS). Khan had previously removed Munir from his position as chief of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency after a highly publicised falling out.

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The leaked document's distribution list explicitly notes that a "Super Copy" of this highly sensitive diplomatic warning was sent directly to the Chief of Army Staff and the Director-General of the ISI. The document has not been independently verified by the Zee News and is going viral on social media.

The Pakistani Ambassador's final assessment in the cable warned Islamabad that the US was interfering in internal sovereign matters- "Don [Donald Lu] could not have conveyed such a strong demarche without the express approval of the White House... Clearly, Don spoke out of turn on Pakistan’s internal political process."

The convergence of US diplomatic threats and the military establishment's subsequent withdrawal of support for Khan created the perfect political storm. In the months following the no-confidence vote, Khan was removed, arrested, and systematically sidelined, while General Munir consolidated authority over a reshaped political landscape in Islamabad. The state department has repeatedly denied interfering in Pakistan's internal politics, but this document provides a rare, unvarnished look at how raw geopolitical leverage is applied behind closed doors.