‘This will make Asim Munir very angry’: Mahesh Jethmalani reacts to leaked Pakistan cable on Imran Khan

Supreme Court advocate Mahesh Jethmalani on Monday reacted to the publication of a leaked classified Pakistani diplomatic cable that appears to detail US concerns over former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s foreign policy shortly before his removal from office in 2022.

“This entire ‘SECRET DOCUMENT’ cypher getting leaked will make Asim Munir very, very angry. Very angry,” Jethmalani wrote on X.

The document, marked “Secret” and identified as “I-0678”, was published by investigative outlet Drop Site. It appears to contain details of a March 7, 2022 meeting between Pakistan’s then ambassador to the United States and senior American diplomat Donald Lu.

The cable has long been central to Khan’s allegations that Washington quietly encouraged his removal after he pursued what he described as an independent foreign policy, including maintaining ties with Russia during the Ukraine war.

According to the leaked document, Lu expressed concern over Pakistan’s position on the Ukraine conflict and specifically linked tensions in bilateral relations to Khan’s visit to Moscow on the day Russia invaded Ukraine.

One of the most politically sensitive sections of the cable reportedly quotes Lu as saying that if the no-confidence motion against Khan succeeded, “all will be forgiven in Washington”.

Otherwise, Pakistan could face diplomatic isolation from the United States and Europe.

In the cable’s concluding assessment, the Pakistani ambassador reportedly wrote that Lu “could not have conveyed such a strong demarche without the express approval of the White House”.

Jethmalani said the leak reopened “the one file Rawalpindi wanted buried forever”.

He linked the episode to what he described as “Imran Khan’s removal, Biden administration’s pressure, Pakistan’s ISI & military establishment, and the ‘all will be forgiven’ line that never stopped haunting Islamabad”.

Weeks after the alleged diplomatic exchange, Khan publicly waved a document at a rally and accused foreign powers of conspiring against his government. In April 2022, he lost a no-confidence vote – the first successful vote of its kind against a Pakistani Prime Minister.

“Since 2022, Pakistan’s generals sold the world a story,” Jethmalani wrote. “That Imran was finished because of domestic politics. That there was no external pressure. That the military had nothing to do with the democratic collapse. That Pakistan was simply moving forward.”

“Now the full cypher is in public view, and suddenly the entire script looks fragile again,” he added.

Jethmalani also criticised Pakistan’s military establishment and Army chief Asim Munir in his remarks. “This is the problem with running a country through uniforms, fear and managed narratives. Documents survive. Timelines survive. Betrayal survives,” he said. “Pakistan’s real crisis is its army treating democracy as rented property.”

Calling for Khan’s release from prison, Jethmalani wrote: “Because keeping him in jail after this only makes Rawalpindi look guiltier, weaker and more terrified of one man than ever before.”