US Ambassador: Pakistani Opposition Figures Vow to Install Pro-US Govt.

Despite Criticism of PPP, Key Leaders Said to Promise Their Own Client State

Speaking in an interview to the BBC’s Urdu channel today, US Ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter claimed that two of the top opposition leaders in the country have personally promised that they would install pro-US governments should they win the next election.

Munter said he met with current opposition leader Nawaz Sharif as well as popular PTI leader Imran Khan, and that both had assured him that if they won the election, Pakistan would cooperate unconditionally with the US on the war in terrorism.

Both candidates’ parties have been loudly critical of the ruling Pakistani Peoples Party (PPP) for behaving like a US client state, and Khan has loudly condemned participation in the war, saying in one interview that “America is destroying Pakistan.”

Munter’s claims were shocking, and neither Sharif nor Khan has issued statements yet disputing the allegations. If true they will likely push Pakistan’s strongly anti-US voters toward religious conservative blocs as the only real “opposition” to the status quo.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.