Pakistan’s recent role as a mediator on the world stage – trusted by the US, Iran, and the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries (GCC), according to the BBC – is shadowed by Imran Khan’s imprisonment.
Ever ready to muscle in where he doesn’t belong, Keir Starmer shared that he spoke to the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shehbaz Sharif, and thanked him for Pakistan’s critical role.
However, it was pointed out by Declassified that the UK has had a ” muted at best and complicit at worst” reaction to Pakistan’s incarceration of Khan. Khan has been imprisoned since 2023 on corruption charges he rejects. The UK says Pakistan’s courts are responsible for the legal process, but Khan should receive humane treatment.
Keir Starmer spoke to Pakistani PM Sharif, but there’s no record he raised the ongoing imprisonment of Imran Khan, who has been held largely in solitary confinement, in “inhumane” detention conditions (UN) and denied family visits.
https://t.co/CIb1oWSv5o pic.twitter.com/TA0Onf4f9G
— Declassified UK (@declassifiedUK) April 13, 2026
Imran Khan question
Political commentator Ben Norton posted a claim on X that the US backed a coup against Imran Khan to put the current ‘puppet’ Prime Minister Sharif, in power. He implied that Sharif had allowed the White House to write his public statements for him, sharing a New York Times story on the previously agreed, now nulled ceasefire between Iran and the USA.
This is why the US backed a coup against Pakistan’s independent Prime Minister Imran Khan and helped put in power Shehbaz Sharif, a corrupt US puppet from an oligarchic dynasty.
Sharif is such a shameless puppet that the US writes his public statements.https://t.co/y1Ddyg4hqk pic.twitter.com/70ZSwyO1oB
— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) April 10, 2026
Just before the failed talks between Iran and the US in Islamabad over the weekend, Haqooq-e-Khalq Party (HKP) of Pakistan, along with 40 popular movements from around the globe, issued a statement condemning Western supremacy. The group said they:
Condemn the escalating war of aggression waged by the United States, Zionism, and its allies against the Islamic Republic of Iran. This hot war was prepared over decades through “cold” yet deadly sanctions, covert sabotage, targeted assassinations, military encirclement, and cognitive warfare. Its aim is to collapse the Iranian state — an agenda of balkanization through ethnic strife and de-develoment through bombardment that has become a hallmark of contemporary imperialist war.
The HKP is part of the Tehreek-e-Tahafuz-e-Ayeen-e-Pakistan (Movement to Protect the Constitution of Pakistan or TTAP), which is a coalition of several political formations and is headed by Pakistan Tehreek-Insaaf (PTI), Pakistan’s main opposition party, and founded by Khan himself
In February, PTI called a general strike in Pakistan amid Imran Khan’s incarceration, the second anniversary of the “rigged elections”, and Pakistan’s participation in Trump’s Board of Peace for Gaza, according to People’s Dispatch. The outlet reported:
February 8 marks the anniversary of the 2024 Pakistani general elections, which were held two years after the removal of Imran Khan, of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), from the office of prime minister in a vote of no confidence. The 2024 elections were marred with irregularities, seemingly aimed at preventing the victory of the PTI and Imran Khan who was already in prison.
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Implications
Khan’s imprisonment leaves an obvious question. Had he not been ousted in questionable circumstances, perhaps Pakistan would not have been on the colonial sham of Trump’s Board of Peace. Pakistan’s Ministers would also not be deleting X posts criticizing Israel.
We Pakistanis stand by every word of the tweet by @KhawajaMAsif. We wish and pray our country will play an important role, INSHALLAH, in annihilating and obliterating the illegitimate, illegal, terrorist and genocidal state of Israel. pic.twitter.com/d1O2ykWzkT
— Haider Ali Butt (@HaiderSalma_) April 10, 2026
A lawyer and Vice President of Pakistan’s HKP reshared the current Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Asif’s post, criticizing Israel. Asif deleted the post after Zionist pressure.
However, Butt said:
We Pakistanis stand by every word of the tweet by @KhawajaMAsif.
It is, again, unlikely Asif would have had to delete such a post under Khan. And, neither would Pakistan have found itself the lapdog of the US and Israel even as it stretches to host negotiations with Iran.
Featured image via the Canary
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