A secret sale of Pakistani arms to the United States helped facilitate a controversial International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout earlier this year, according to a report published by interception, an American nonprofit online news organization.
The arms sales were made to supply the Ukrainian army, signaling Pakistan’s involvement in a conflict in which it had faced American pressure to take sides.
The report claims the revelation is a window into the kind of behind-the-scenes maneuvering among financial and political elites that is rarely exposed to the public, even when the public pays the price. YEARS reported, citing The interception.
Pakistan faced major protests over tough structural policy reforms demanded by the Washington-based financial body as terms of its recent rescue package.
There were several strikes in the country in response to the measures. The protests are the latest chapter in a political crisis that has lasted a year and a half and is shaking the country.
With support from the United States, the Pakistani military helped in April 2022 organize a no-confidence vote to remove Prime Minister Imran Khan. Before Khan’s overthrow, US State Department diplomats privately expressed anger to their Pakistani counterparts over what they called Pakistan’s “aggressively neutral” stance in the Ukraine war under Khan.
They warned of dire consequences if Khan remained in power and promised that “all would be forgiven” if he were removed. After Khan’s overthrow, Islamabad emerged as a useful support for the United States and its allies in the war, help that has now been rewarded with an IMF loan, The interception reported.
Pakistan is known as a production center for the basic types of ammunition needed for intense warfare. As Ukraine grapples with a chronic shortage of ammunition and equipment, the presence of Pakistani-produced shells and other Ukrainian military ordinances has emerged in open-source news reports about the conflict, although neither the United States nor the Pakistanis have recognized the deal.
A Pakistani military source leaked records detailing arms transactions earlier this year. The documents outline ammunition sales agreed upon between the United States and Pakistan from summer 2022 to spring 2023, according to The interception reports.
The authentication process was performed by matching the signature of an American brigadier general with his signature on publicly available mortgage records in the United States; matching Pakistani documents with corresponding US documents; and reviewing publicly available but previously unreported Pakistani revelations about arms sales to the United States published by the State Bank of Pakistan.
Economic capital and political goodwill from arms sales played a key role in helping secure the IMF bailout, and the State Department agreed to trust the IMF with respect to the undisclosed arms deal, according to sources with knowledge of the deal. , and confirmed by a related document.