00:00A secret diplomatic cable.
00:03A Prime Minister who defied Washington.
00:06A spymaster waiting in the shadows.
00:10This is the story of how Imran Khan went from being Pakistan's most powerful leader
00:14to its most famous prisoner.
00:17And how Asim Munir became the man America could do business with.
00:22This one came hidden inside a diplomatic cable.
00:25A cipher.
00:26A coded message sent from Pakistan's embassy in Washington on March 7th, 2022.
00:32Four years ago.
00:32And according to explosive reports now circulating through American and Pakistani media
00:36that one cable may explain how Imran Khan lost America,
00:41how Pakistan's military turned on him,
00:43and how Asim Munir became Washington's new favourite general.
00:47Because this story has everything.
00:49Secret meetings, CIA, PAC channels, missile deals, nuclear anxieties,
00:54China, Russia, the Taliban, and a Prime Minister who thought he could play geopolitical poker
00:58with all the superpowers at once.
01:02He lost.
01:03And Pakistan changed forever.
01:07Islamabad, March 2022.
01:09Imran Khan is cornered.
01:10The opposition is preparing a no-confidence vote.
01:12The Pakistani army has gone cold on him.
01:15Washington is furious.
01:17Then arrives a top-secret diplomatic cable from Pakistan's ambassador in Washington,
01:21Asad Majeed Khan.
01:22Inside it is a summary of a meeting with senior US diplomat Donald Lew.
01:27Most of the cable is routine diplomatic chatter about Ukraine.
01:31But buried in it is one devastating line.
01:35If the no-confidence vote against the Prime Minister succeeds,
01:38all will be forgiven in Washington, the memo says.
01:41That sentence detonated like a bomb in Islamabad.
01:44Because to Imran Khan, this was not diplomacy anymore.
01:46This was regime change.
01:48And honestly, from his perspective, the timing looked terrifying.
01:53Just weeks earlier, he had stood beside Vladimir Putin in Moscow
01:56on the exact day Russia invaded Ukraine.
02:00That image became symbolic worldwide.
02:03At the exact moment the West was isolating Putin,
02:06Pakistan's Prime Minister was shaking his hand.
02:08Washington hated it.
02:10But the real fracture between Imran Khan and Asim Munir may have begun years earlier.
02:14Tehran, 2019.
02:16Imran Khan lands in Iran trying to pull off something ambitious.
02:20At the time, he still saw himself as more than Pakistan's Prime Minister.
02:23He imagined himself as a major player in the Islamic world.
02:25A bridge between rival powers in West Asia.
02:28Travelling with him was his intelligence chief, Asim Munir.
02:32And according to later reporting by Dropside News,
02:35something went wrong behind closed doors.
02:37Very wrong.
02:38Pakistan and Iran were discussing cooperation against insurgents
02:41operating across the Balajistan border.
02:43The talks were delicate, sensitive, strategic.
02:46But people close to Imran Khan later claimed,
02:49Munir suddenly began speaking aggressively to the Iranians,
02:51using language that reportedly stunned even members of the Pakistani delegation.
02:55To Khan's inner circle, this was not incompetence.
02:58It looked deliberate.
02:59Because closer Pakistan-Iran ties would have complicated Washington's efforts to isolate Tehran.
03:04And this is where the suspicions begin.
03:06Years later, Khan's allies would look back at that Tehran meeting and ask,
03:12was Munir already signalling where his loyalties lay?
03:15Whatever happened in Iran clearly damaged the relationship between the two men.
03:19Because within months, Imran Khan removed Asim Munir as ISI chief after an unusually short tenure.
03:25As Pakistan's deep state, that kind of humiliation is never forgotten.
03:29And from that moment onward, according to Khan's supporters, the countdown had begun.
03:33Now let's go back to 2021.
03:35America is preparing to leave Afghanistan.
03:37The Taliban are advancing.
03:38Kabul is collapsing.
03:40The Biden administration desperately wants regional support.
03:43And one country matters more than any other.
03:45Pakistan.
03:46The Americans want access, bases, air corridors, intelligence cooperation.
03:50So CIA director, William Burns, visits Islamabad.
03:53He wants to meet Imran Khan.
03:55Imran Khan refuses.
03:57That decision shocked Washington.
03:59Think about the symbolism here.
04:01The CIA chief arrives in Pakistan, historically one of America's closest intelligence partners.
04:05And the Pakistani Prime Minister basically says,
04:07You are not important enough for me.
04:09Imran Khan reportedly insisted he would only engage someone at his own level.
04:13Meaning, if America wanted serious talks, Joe Biden should call him directly.
04:17Biden never did.
04:18And then Imran Khan went further.
04:20In an interview with Axis, he publicly slammed the door shut on US military operations in Afghanistan.
04:26No bases, no drones, no cooperation.
04:28Absolutely not, he said.
04:30For Washington, this was a strategic nightmare.
04:32But for Pakistan's army, it was something worse.
04:35Dangerous.
04:35Because the Pakistani military survives for balancing relationships.
04:39America for weapons and money.
04:40China for infrastructure and strategic backing.
04:42Saudi Arabia for financial lifelines.
04:44The army never wanted Pakistan fully aligned with anyone.
04:47But Imran Khan was becoming unpredictable.
04:50He wanted strategic autonomy.
04:52That phrase sounds elegant in speeches.
04:55Military establishments hated.
04:56Then came Russia.
04:58The Biden administration reportedly warned Pakistan that an invasion of Ukraine was imminent
05:02and urged Imran Khan to cancel his Moscow trip.
05:05He ignored them.
05:07And suddenly Washington saw him not merely as difficult but as a geopolitical liability.
05:11Now, enters the man quietly watching everything from the shadows.
05:16Asim Munir.
05:18Former ISI chief.
05:19Intelligence operator.
05:20A man many in Pakistan describe as cold, methodical and deeply ambitious.
05:25According to multiple reports, including claims amplified by DropSight News,
05:29Munir had already begun building deeper channels with both the Pakistani military establishment
05:33and American interlocutors.
05:36And then the pressure campaign began tightening around Imran Khan.
05:39Inside Pakistan, whispers spread through the establishment.
05:43Imran was damaging relations with Washington, damaging relations with Riyadh,
05:46Complicating ties with Beijing, antagonizing the army.
05:49He was becoming isolated.
05:51Then came the cipher leak.
05:53Imran Khan threatened to make the cable public.
05:55If he succeeded, he could weaponize anti-American sentiment overnight.
05:59And in Pakistan, anti-Americanism is political rocket fuel.
06:03So suddenly, extraordinary things began happening.
06:06Pakistan's courts intervened.
06:07The establishment mobilized.
06:09The no-confidence vote accelerated.
06:11And on April 9th, 2022, Imran Khan fell.
06:15But here is where the story gets darker.
06:17Because according to subsequent investigative reports,
06:20Pakistan's geopolitical behavior changed almost immediately after Imran Khan's removal.
06:25Weapons shipments reportedly began flowing quietly towards Ukraine through intermediaries.
06:29Relations with Washington improved.
06:31An IMF bailout followed.
06:33And Pakistan's military establishment, especially under Kamar Javed Bajwa,
06:37started repairing ties with America at a remarkable speed.
06:40But Bajwa was only the bridge.
06:41The real consolidation came later.
06:43Asim Munir rose.
06:45First army chief.
06:46Then something even bigger.
06:47Over time, Pakistan's military structure itself began changing around him.
06:51Power centralized.
06:52Civilian authority weakened further.
06:54And eventually, Munir emerged not merely as army chief,
06:57but as a single dominant force in Pakistan's strategic architecture.
07:01Including, reportedly, oversight over parts of Pakistan's nuclear command structure.
07:06Now, layer another dimension onto this thriller.
07:09China.
07:09Because while Pakistan was repairing ties with America, Beijing was watching nervously.
07:13The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, once the crown jewel of Xi Jinping's belt and road vision,
07:18had begun slowing down.
07:20Projects stalled.
07:21Chinese workers were attacked.
07:22Frustration grew.
07:23And then comes perhaps the wildest allegation in the entire story.
07:27According to a report cited by DropSight, Pakistan allegedly approached China with an extraordinary proposal.
07:32Turned Guadal into a permanent Chinese military facility.
07:35A warm water naval foothold near the Persian Gulf.
07:37In return, Pakistan wanted protection from possible American retaliation, military modernization
07:42and even helped developing a sea-based nuclear second strike capability.
07:48Essentially, nuclear submarines.
07:49China reportedly balked.
07:51That was too dangerous even for Beijing.
07:53Meanwhile, Munir kept playing both sides.
07:56Telling China one thing, telling Washington another.
07:58And somehow, it worked.
07:59Because today, despite decades of mistrust, America appears to have settled into a familiar conclusion.
08:04Pakistan may be impossible, but Pakistan's army is indispensable.
08:09Especially when compared to a populist wildcard like Imran Khan.
08:12And that is the irony at the heart of his entire story.
08:15Imran Khan thought he was making Pakistan more sovereign.
08:18Less dependent on America.
08:19More independent globally.
08:20Able to balance China, Russia, the Gulf and the West simultaneously.
08:24But in trying to escape the old system, he triggered the system's survival instinct.
08:29The army moved.
08:31Washington adapted.
08:32The establishment closed ranks.
08:34And the man, who once called himself Pakistan's most popular leader, now sits in jail.
08:39While the general he once sidelined became one of the most powerful men Pakistan has seen in decades.
08:43All because of a cable.
08:46A cipher.
08:47Two and a half pages that changed South Asian geopolitics forever.
08:50I'm Manisha Dikari.
08:52First things first.
08:57Long.
08:58Long.
08:59Long.
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