THE National Security Committee — the country’s highest security forum — has now unequivocally stated that it does not believe there was an international conspiracy to dislodge Imran Khan from PM House. It has subsequently become clear that the former prime minister made selfish political use of a secret diplomatic communication to squeeze his way back into the running for the next general elections.

To protect his political interests, Mr Khan also engineered a series of controversies to try to discredit parliamentary processes, the judiciary as well as the security establishment for making the ‘mistake’ of not protecting his government from being ousted with a vote of no-confidence. He simultaneously cast aspersions on the loyalties of his political rivals while rebranding the PTI as the only party fighting to keep Pakistan’s foreign policy independent from interference.

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Rather than take stock of his party’s less-than-stellar performance in its three-odd years in power, the PTI chief distracted both supporters and critics by stoking moral panic over a shadowy transnational plot to take down the Pakistani government. One need only question why the PTI is frequently switching its narrative between ‘conspiracy’, ‘interference’ and ‘establishment’s mistake’ to understand that it is a smokescreen. Its real purpose is to make sure there is an early election.

In all this, the efforts of Pakistan’s erstwhile ambassador to the US stand vindicated. Two NSC meetings have confirmed that whatever he reported about his interaction with the senior US official did indeed provide cause for alarm. It is commendable that the ambassador immediately alerted the Foreign Office of the unnatural and undiplomatic language used by the US official during their interaction.

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He also reportedly recommended that foreign ministry officials immediately take the matter up with both the US ambassador in Pakistan and the authorities in Washington to determine if what was discussed was indeed the official US position. The matter was serious enough that it has again been confirmed as ‘blatant interference’ in Pakistan’s affairs by the NSC. The question then arises: what prevented then foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi from acting immediately on the ambassador’s advice? Why did he take weeks to bring the matter to the NSC?

It is true that the US does indeed have a history of meddling in Pakistan’s internal affairs both overtly and covertly. However, an act of interference is quite different from an act of conspiracy, and the NSC seems quite clear on this particular matter. As Pakistan’s highest security forum, its assessment has weight and cannot be contested without counter-evidence.

It is unfortunate, however, that whatever it says is unlikely to have much of an impact on the PTI and its supporters. PTI’s politics now seems to have moved to the ‘post-truth’ phase where inconvenient facts are not entertained and leaders take collective oaths of obedience from their emotionally charged followers.

Published in Dawn, April 24th, 2022