The narrative that wasn’t

When Imran Khan’s government was being ousted through a vote of no-confidence, he relied on two important issues to build a narrative. One, a ‘foreign conspiracy’ of regime change after a cipher from a Pakistan Foreign Office official in the US. Two, that Imran had said ‘absolutely not’ to American demands for bases and that because of his independent policy and his Russia visit, the US wanted him out. Imran reiterated this stance in almost every speech and interview over the past few months, as did his party leaders – so much so that the ‘foreign conspiracy’ and ‘imported government’ spin became undisputed fact for PTI followers. Imran and party happily gained popularity because of this narrative, which was always bound to work given the general conspiratorial bend among people and a somewhat-understandable anti-US sentiment in the country. It really didn’t matter to his supporters that the NSC had rejected his conspiracy theory twice officially, that the DG ISPR had also clarified that there was no evidence of a US-backed conspiracy to get rid of Imran’s government – in fact, any denials only seemed to further fuel the conspiracy.

Soon enough – and expectedly, given the PTI leader’s infamous U-turns – reports started coming in of the PTI’s overtures towards the US ambassador in Pakistan and as well as the party hiring a lobbying firm in the US to improve relations between the PTI and the Americans. That too, however, didn’t dampen the gusto with which people believed in the narrative – though it was an initial light blow. Things started unravelling further via the audio leaks between Imran and his party leaders discussing how to ‘use’ the FO letter to their advantage. While that dented the narrative, the PTI managed to spin it around.

Now, however, an interview published in the Financial Times may just have finally spelt the end of the foreign conspiracy narrative. Talking to FT, Imran has said that he would like to put the alleged conspiracy ‘behind him’, that he no longer ‘blamed’ the US and that he would like instead a ‘dignified’ relationship with the superpower if re-elected. This essentially puts an end to the tales of a foreign intervention in the PTI government’s ouster. The former prime minister has even admitted that his visit to Moscow a day before its Ukraine invasion in February was ‘embarrassing’ but that the trip had been organized months in advance. For months, anyone sceptical of this angle was ridiculed, the current government members were harassed for being ‘imported’, and PTI rallies resounded with slogans of a sold-out government and anti-American rhetoric. What Imran really did was put at stake Pakistan’s diplomatic relations with the US, with no care as to the consequences – as long as it suited his own politics. Analysts had said back then that it was embarrassing for Pakistan diplomatically that Russia invaded Ukraine while our prime minister was in Moscow on an official state visit. But that too was shot down by the PTI as Western annoyance at Imran’s so-called politics of resisting dictation from the US.

It seems that Imran Khan and his party are all too willing to use a post-truth world to spin tales of intrigue – which can sound plausible given the way the US has operated around the world – and then once the narrative is exhausted to backtrack, take a U-turn and hop on to yet another chronicle of persecution. From 35 punctures to US cipher, the PTI has backtracked from many issues after going on about it for several months. Any other party would have suffered immense loss of credibility after such a blatant turnaround on its stance, but going by recent history it may be safe to assume that even this will not dent Imran and his party’s popularity. However, a word of unsolicited advice for the former PM: since he can very easily come to power again – the PTI’s popularity is at an all-time high – perhaps he and his party need to be mindful of the real damage something like the cipher incident can cause the country diplomatically. No politics can possibly be worth that.