Pakistan has supplied weapons to Ukraine to get a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) with US support. Islamabad also made a secret agreement with the United States about this. The American media The Intercept reported this information in an investigative report.
The Intercept reported this secret arms deal between Washington and Islamabad on the basis of two strong sources. Apart from this, information has also been found in several secret documents of the Pakistan and US governments about the arms deal.
Pakistan is known in the world as a center for manufacturing three types of weapons. Meanwhile, Ukraine has been suffering from a shortage of weapons and ammunition for a long time. It is at this time that the country is reported to have received Pakistan’s artillery shells and other military equipment. However, neither Pakistan nor the US government has acknowledged the deal to arm Ukraine.
According to the Intercept, classified documents, the arms deal was agreed between the summer of last year and the spring of this year. Apart from this, these documents contain the details of how much money Pakistan will get in exchange for arms to Ukraine, licenses, discussions between officials of the two countries.
The Intercept says they found the signature of a Brigadier General of the US Army. The signature on this secret document was found to be identical to the official documents that the general had signed earlier.
The US-Pakistan arms deal was brokered by US-based Global Military Products. It is basically an organ of Global Ordnance. Global Ordnance acts as an intermediary in arms sales and transactions. There is much controversy about the institution.
After a long delay, the IMF agreed to give loans to Pakistan earlier this year. The Intercept claims that the door to IMF loans was opened for Pakistan soon after the secret arms deal with the US. That arms deal helped Pakistan get this loan.
The IMF had given tough conditions to Pakistan to get the loan. To meet that condition, the government of Pakistan took steps to implement some drastic fiscal and structural policy reforms. Protests started in the country against these decisions of the government. As a result of these protests, political unrest arose.
The Intercept says that the United States was behind the ouster of Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan. With the encouragement of the US, the country’s military moved a no-confidence motion against Imran Khan in the National Assembly in April last year. Imran was ousted in that vote.
However, the Pakistani government did not want to talk about the secret agreement claimed in this report and the United States directly denied it. A spokesperson for the Pakistan Embassy in Washington declined to comment. A spokesperson of the US State Department claimed that the talks on the loan were a matter between Pakistan and IMF officials, and the United States was not involved in these discussions.
