U.S. Helped Pakistan Get IMF Bailout with Secret Arms Deal for Ukraine

For context, in April 2022, former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan was removed from office through a vote of no confidence orchestrated with the encouragement of the U.S. administration. Ahead of the ouster, U.S. State Department diplomats privately expressed anger to their Pakistani counterparts over Pakistan’s “aggressively neutral” stance on the Ukraine war under Imran Khan. They warned of dire consequences if Khan remained in power and promised “all would be forgiven” if he were removed.

Following Imran Khan’s removal, Pakistan succumbed to US pressure to covertly support Ukraine in its ongoing war against Russia. Pakistan also emerged as a useful supporter of the U.S. and its ally in the war, support that has now been repaid as financial assistance in the form of an IMF loan.

Bombs Before Bailout: Pakistan’s Secret Arms Sales Deal

According to an investigative report by The Intercept called Bombs Before Bailout, Pakistan was forced from its neutral position in the Russia-Ukraine conflict and had sold munitions worth $900 million to the United States for use in Ukraine in a secret arms deal under pressure from the U.S., which in turn helped Islamabad secure an IMF bailout.

The U.S.’s stance on Pakistan’s Secret Arms Sales Deal

Pakistan’s Foreign Office, the Biden Administration, and the IMF have denied this story. However, the Intercept maintains that their reporting was based on documents related to the US-brokered deal as well as publicly available but previously unreported Pakistani secret arms sales to the U.S. posted by the State Bank of Pakistan.

Additionally, the denial of the U.S. State Department on Pakistan’s secret arms sales deal was contradicted by Maryland Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen, who told a group of Pakistani journalists that the United States has been very instrumental in making sure that the IMF came forward with its emergency economic relief and that his knowledge of the U.S. role in facilitating the IMF loan came directly from the Biden administration.

The emergency IMF loan allowed the new Pakistani government and the military establishment to prevent a looming economic catastrophe, strengthen their control over the country, and indefinitely postpone elections. Simultaneously, it used this time to launch a nationwide crackdown on civil society, in which Imran Khan himself and thousands of his supporters have been jailed under bogus charges.

Every country has the right to protect its sovereignty and democracy, make its own foreign policy decisions, and choose its leaders without interference from external powers.

We strongly condemn how the U.S. and its local collaborators in Pakistan, including the corrupt political and military leaders, have ousted a democratically elected Prime Minister and unleashed unprecedented fascism and human rights abuses to suppress dissent, all so Pak can be dragged into another foreign war.

It seems that the Pakistani leaders have not learned any lessons from their history of dragging the country into a foreign war, despite seeing its devastation continue even 20 years later.