The 'Cypher' Secret: Leaked Cable Confirms Pakistan Ousted Imran Khan to Rebuild Ties with Washington
The political fallout predicted in the meeting materialized quickly. Exactly six weeks after that diplomatic luncheon, on April 9, 2022, Imran Khan was removed from office following a successful no-confidence vote. The 73-year-old leader has been imprisoned since 2023 and was placed in solitary confinement last year.
A newly published classified diplomatic document has brought renewed scrutiny to former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s long-standing claims of a foreign conspiracy. Khan has consistently pointed to this specific text as definitive proof that the United States backed a plot to strip him of power.
The document, traditionally referred to in Pakistan as a "cypher," captures a pivotal luncheon meeting between Asad Majeed Khan, who was then serving as Pakistan’s ambassador to the US, and Donald Lu, the US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia. For the first time, investigative news outlet Drop Site News has published the complete text of cable I-0678—the highly sensitive Pakistani diplomatic telegram dated March 7, 2022
What the Leaked US-Pakistan Cable Reveals
The text of the cable details direct pressure from Washington over Islamabad's foreign policy choices. According to the document, Lu explicitly stated that the friction between the two nations could be resolved if Imran Khan was removed from his position through a parliamentary no-confidence motion.
“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 said, per the cable. “Otherwise, I think it will be tought going ahead.”
Lu also cautioned that without a change in leadership, Imran Khan’s "isolation will become very strong from Europe and the United States."
In the assessment section of the telegram, Ambassador Khan shared a stark warning with his superiors. He noted that Lu “could not have conveyed such a strong demarche without the express approval of the White House” and concluded that the American diplomat had “spoken out of turn on Pakistan’s internal political process.”
The high-security document was designated as "Secret, No Circulation." Its limited distribution list included only a few of Pakistan's top officials: the Secretary to the Prime Minister, the Foreign Secretary, the Chief of Army Staff, the Director General of the ISI, and the Director of the SSP section.
The Path to Imran Khan’s Ouster
The political fallout predicted in the meeting materialized quickly. Exactly six weeks after that diplomatic luncheon, on April 9, 2022, Imran Khan was removed from office following a successful no-confidence vote. The 73-year-old leader has been imprisoned since 2023 and was placed in solitary confinement last year.
Before his removal, Khan frequently took to public platforms to argue that the United States was working alongside Pakistan’s established political dynastie, specifically the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), to engineer his downfall. He maintained that Washington targeted him because of his independent foreign policy and his refusal to align blindly with the West against Russia and China.
In an April 2022 public address, Khan openly challenged the pressure, stating that Washington wanted "me, personally, gone ... and everything would be forgiven." He argued that American officials were deeply dissatisfied with his persistent criticism of the US War on Terror and his refusal to grant permission for "over-the-horizon" military operations into Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.
"They say that 'our anger will vanish if Imran Khan loses this no-confidence vote,'" Khan remarked at the time.
The State Department moved fast to dismiss the allegations. Ned Price, who was the State Department spokesperson during the controversy, stated flatly that there was "no truth" to Khan's claims. "We are closely following developments in Pakistan. We respect (and) we support Pakistan's constitutional process and the rule of law," Price stated.
Growing Tensions Over Foreign Policy and 'Neutrality'
The friction documented in the cypher followed decades of transactional and often volatile relations between Islamabad and Washington. For nearly twenty years, US policymakers accused Pakistan of harboring Taliban leaders while simultaneously accepting billions of dollars in American security assistance. Trust fractured completely in 2011 when US Navy SEALs executed a raid to kill Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, a military garrison town, without informing Pakistani authorities.
During his presidency, Donald Trump suspended military aid to Islamabad, asserting that the country failed to take decisive action against terrorist networks. The Biden administration maintained this diplomatic distance, refusing to engage closely with Khan's government.
Relationships strained further when Khan publicly declined a US request for regional military bases following the American withdrawal from Afghanistan. At the same time, the prime minister drew firm diplomatic boundaries elsewhere; leaked documents show his administration resisted intense pressure from Saudi Arabia to sign a mutual defense pact.
However, the definitive breaking point for Washington appeared to be Khan’s "aggressively neutral position" regarding the war in Ukraine. Khan arrived in Moscow for an official visit on the exact day Russian forces invaded Ukraine in February 2022, ignoring direct requests from US officials to cancel the trip. Pakistan subsequently abstained from a United Nations vote to condemn the invasion.
The Military Reshapes Pakistan’s Strategy
While Khan viewed these choices as a assertion of national sovereignty, Pakistan’s powerful military leadership arrived at a different conclusion, believing his approach was steering the country into dangerous global isolation. Signs of an internal rift had appeared months earlier. In July 2021, without the prime minister's knowledge, the military quietly retained a former CIA Islamabad station chief to act as a lobbyist in Washington. The move signaled that the generals were operating independently of the civilian administration.
Following Khan’s ouster, his political party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), faced a severe crackdown. The party was outlawed, stripped of its traditional electoral symbol before the 2024 general election, and its winning independent candidates were denied official certification. Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, were subsequently convicted on various charges relating to corruption, contempt, and national security.
With a military-backed government installed in Islamabad, Pakistan's geopolitical alignment shifted visibly back toward Western priorities. The new administration began supplying artillery ammunition to assist the Ukrainian war effort, routing the shipments through US contractors and third-party intermediaries.
According to the Drop Site reporting, subsequent financial lifelines from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to Pakistan were quietly linked to the preservation of these military supply lines. Additionally, the new government reversed course and officially signed the Saudi defense pact that Khan had previously blocked.
Published By : Garvit Parashar
Published On: 18 May 2026 at 19:46 IST