Munir may be a field marshal to satisfy the ego. But years back, he was 'drawn out' as a PAWN and they all happily walked into an American trap; and yet again.
What is cypher? Cypher means zero. It doesn’t mean it is something that was done by a cypher. Somebody who is a complete cypher. Not like that. Cypher means code. So, something that is written in code is a cyphered document. This was a cypher document that was sent by the then ambassador of Pakistan in Washington on 7th March 2022. The ambassador’s name was Asad Majeed Khan.
Pakistanis are 'snobs' and self-virtuous : They know their limitation and yet 'Punjabi' complex works so powerful !!
WHAT WAS PAKISTAN'S CIPHER CASE?
The cipher case, which since 2022 took the centre-stage of Pakistani politics, also played a role in Imran's downfall. In diplomatic language, a cipher is a coded communication. The cable sent from Washington to Islamabad was classified and highly sensitive.
Pakistan's ambassador complained to Donald Lu about US criticism of Imran Khan's Russia visit and Pakistan's position on Ukraine.
Lu allegedly responded that relations could improve if the no-confidence motion against Imran, then the PM, succeeded.
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It may be argued eloquently - Pakistan is where anything can happen.
It's also a place where everything happens for a reason. Nothing happens in isolation.
Now an article in 'India Today' says: "Governments fall, generals rise, prime ministers turn into prisoners and prisoners into symbols of resistance. Former Pakistan PM Imran Khan's rise to power, his anti-American posturing, his "absolutely not" doctrine, his Moscow visit on the very day Russia invaded Ukraine.....
and the rise of Field Marshal Asim Munir as arguably the most powerful man Pakistan has seen are all connected."
The Drop Site News report now appears to fit all the events mentioned above together like a jigsaw puzzle.
The chain of events in Pakistan since the early 2022s led to the outcome which was planned. It all seemed orchestrated by a king and his pawn, according to a report by American outlet Drop Site News on May 18. Now a brief reference to an article published in London-based 'The Guardian' in 2000 (that is 26 years back) ---
"Gen Musharraf has meanwhile succeeded in alienating Pakistan's traditional ally, the US, especially after President Bill Clinton's vain, embarrassing visit last March. The US imposed its own arms embargo in 1998...". There was another worth-recall sub-para:
"Even when his performance is measured against his stated objectives, Gen Musharraf is all talk and no trousers.
He has made little or no progress in prosecuting wealthy loan defaulters who milked the nation's banks, in rooting out bureaucratic corruption, halting tax evasion, or relaxing the anti-blasphemy laws."
Back to 'India Today' article -- It notes:
"The chessboard had been laid much earlier.
The game had already begun long before Imran Khan realised it. And in the game reminiscent of the "Great" one from the Cold War-era, Asim Munir was not the king,
but the pawn being moved across the board.
Washington watched, nudged and orchestrated events in Pakistan from a distance. While headlines on the report's revelations focused largely on Imran Khan's removal from the prime minister's post through an internationally-backed plot.
But another angle, perhaps even more intriguing, is that the man who today sits at the pinnacle of Pakistan's power structure, Asim Munir, was central to the bigger rouge geopolitical rearrangement.
The report (in Drop Site) also noted that Pakistan, in pursuit of its "strategic depth", continues to oscillate between dependence and bargaining at high tables in Washington, Beijing, Riyadh and Rawalpindi,
while 'pretending' like a sovereign nation !!
At the heart of it all is the cipher case. It is a classified diplomatic cable sent in March 2022, by Pakistan's then ambassador to Washington, Assad Majeed Khan, to Islamabad's Foreign Ministry.
The cable quoted senior US official Donald Lu as allegedly saying that "all will be forgiven in Washington
"if the no-confidence vote against Imran Khan succeeded. That single line would go on to become the political nuclear weapon around which Imran Khan would base his anti-American narrative, much to the displeasure of the establishment in Rawalpindi.
Imran called it proof of a "foreign conspiracy".
He also referred to what he described as the "London Plan", which experts said was a nexus involving former PM and Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) patriarch Nawaz Sharif, his Pakistan People's Party (PPP) counterpart and present Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, the Pakistani establishment and, of course, the man in khaki with Quranic verses on his lips, Asim Munir.
For Imran, the cable became evidence that Washington wanted him gone.
This was the same "letter" he repeatedly referred to in the spring of 2022.
He held it as the "proof of a foreign conspiracy" and even dared his critics to deny or question it.
As the situation escalated, Imran threatened to publicly release the cable.
The Pakistani establishment and army panicked.
Even the Islamabad High Court restrained Imran from releasing the document.
DID THE US NOT LIKE IMRAN KHAN? ;;;; POLITICS SO DIFFERENT FROM CRICKET?
Years into office, Imran Khan's foreign policy increasingly began resembling what he called "strategic autonomy".
He publicly rejected American requests for military bases after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, famously telling American outlet Axios, "Absolutely not".
The biggest rupture, however, came over Russia. Despite warnings from Washington, Imran proceeded with his Moscow visit.
On February 24, 2022, the day Russia started its "special military operation" on Ukraine, Imran met Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin and photos of a cordial handshake between the two leaders were released.
That became one of the defining images, leaving a particularly bad taste in Washington's mouth.
A former CIA station chief is hired by the Pakistani army behind the back of its prime minister to lobby for it in Washington. That’s how complicated the situation is and that’s why Imran Khan (I think his judgment was right) thought that this was a conspiracy to pull him down through a vote of confidence, in which his army was also involved.
When this happens, Imran Khan threatens to make this cable public or this cypher public. That’s why in Pakistan, it’s called the cypher case.
If anyone Googles ‘the cypher case Pakistan’, the entire story and millions of stories about it would greet the surfer !!
ends
