Trump’s Pakistan deal risks neglecting the plight of Imran Khan
trump’s pakistan deal risks neglecting the plight of imran khan
WRITTEN BY MARCUS ANDREOPOULOS
3 September 2025
On 5 August 2025, supporters of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan marked the two year anniversary of his second arrest with widespread demonstrations across the country. The protests, which were encouraged by Khan’s party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), were met with all too familiar scenes of crackdowns and mass arrests by Pakistani police. Back in August 2023, the cricket star-turned-politician had been sentenced to three years in prison for allegedly selling state gifts.
Since then, Khan has faced further charges and longer sentences as the Pakistani government, backed by the all-powerful military establishment, has sought to erase him from public life. Khan, however, has refused to go down without a fight, and has repeatedly mobilised his supporters since his removal from power in April 2022, refusing to allow news of his plight to disappear from the headlines both in Pakistan and abroad. Khan’s continued defiance, and the military’s inability to silence him completely, only deepens instability in the country. As a nuclear armed state, this domestic crisis could have far reaching implications, as the military’s legitimacy continues to be scrutinised by Khan’s supporters.
There have been points since Khan was imprisoned where it seemed as if the Pakistani military had overplayed its hand and made a fateful blunder by turning on its former ally. Images of tens of thousands of Khan’s supporters marching defiantly on Islamabad at the end of 2024, while security forces opened fire on crowds of civilians, suggested that a military takeover or even civil war was imminent.
While dealing with the military-backed government may assist Trump in reaching short-term agreements, constant disorder and popular uprisings will make it impossible for the benefits of such agreements to ever be felt.
Yet, less than 12 months later, Pakistan appears to be emerging from this scenario intact, helped in large part by US President Donald Trump and his willingness to work alongside the Pakistani military and its hybrid arrangement with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government. If this rekindled alliance between the US and Pakistan allows Islamabad to move past this issue without its abuse of power being held to account, it will signal a grim omen for the future of democracy in the country. By overlooking political repression, Washington is disincentivising democratic reform and signalling to those in Islamabad and farther afield that clamping down on political opponents no longer carries international cost.
Trump’s shift
Under the Biden administration, the Pakistani diaspora in America went to great efforts to lobby the US government for support in Khan’s struggle against the Pakistani government. Following his removal from power in the first half of 2022, Khan has been confronted by criminal charge after criminal charge, all of which seemed to be orchestrated by a Pakistani military that was intent on silencing and removing a former leader who had become too popular for his own good. Yet, in the face of this subversion of democracy, followed by Khan’s alleged mistreatment in jail, the Biden Administration stayed noticeably quiet. This was despite the former president warning of the threats facing democracy all around the world.
Biden’s strained relationship with Khan stood in stark contrast to the surprisingly positive encounters the former prime minister had with President Trump during the latter’s first term. Many supporters of Khan and the PTI, therefore, pinned considerable hope on President Trump’s re-election improving Khan’s prospects. Such optimism seemed well-placed in the months and weeks leading up to Trump’s inauguration. In December 2024, Richard Grenell, nominated by then-President-elect Trump to be his envoy for special missions, came out publicly in support of Khan’s release, likening the charges against him to the “false allegations” that had been levelled against Trump previously. Having once rallied his supporters against the US for allegedly conspiring to remove him from power, Khan’s only chance of freedom now appeared to lie in Washington.
Despite this, following his return to the White House, Trump has not adopted the cause of his once “very good friend”, and has instead pursued far closer ties with the very people who placed Khan in prison. At the end of July, Pakistan negotiated a favourable tariff deal with the US that included a dubious collaboration on oil exploration in the country. The move came after months of rapprochement between the US and Pakistan and will not have been welcomed by the PTI and its supporters. Rather than using the leverage from these tariffs to pressure the Pakistani government into releasing Khan or ensuring he receives a fair trial, Trump has instead directed it toward securing profit opportunities for US companies. This is a strategy that has come to epitomise the second Trump Administration in its dealings with various international partners. In fact, this approach to Pakistan serves as a case study of the deeper shift in US foreign policy under Trump, where human rights and democracy have been set aside by the more important objectives of economic gain.
Democracy under threat
As Pakistan’s army chief Asim Munir continues to build on ties with the US abroad, security forces continue to clamp down on PTI domestically. In Lahore alone, over 200 Imran Khan supporters were detained, while police used tear gas on thousands of others in the protests at the start of August. Images of Pakistani security forces resorting to extreme measures against civilians have done little to help the current PML-N government, led by Shehbaz Sharif, to win support among the diaspora. Despite efforts to counter Khan’s global appeal, the former prime minister continues to enjoy the support of a significant number of Pakistanis abroad, who are in turn lobbying their own governments to take an interest in what is happening inside Pakistan.
In March 2024, and in spite of Biden’s indifference to Khan’s fate, Congress held a hearing on the “future of democracy” in Pakistan, after several US lawmakers called upon Biden and his Secretary of State Antony Blinken not to recognise the newly elected Pakistani government. These calls came on the back of an election, held in early February 2024, that was marred by controversy. Despite attempts to subvert this election, the PTI won a plurality of seats and likely would have won a majority had rigging not been so widespread.
Instead, Sharif, the army’s preferred leader, became Prime Minister, preserving the dynamic that has seen Pakistan’s two main parties – the PML-N and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) – conspire with the military establishment to keep Khan out of office. Whilst Khan has continued to prove a nuisance from behind bars, the lack of scrutiny from successive US administrations has allowed this situation to continue unabated. Trump may believe that overlooking the domestic reality in Pakistan will make it easier for the US to achieve its foreign policy objectives in the country; however, this will not be the case. The military’s continued repression of Khan and his supporters is not sustainable and will lead to more chaos and instability. While dealing with the military-backed government may assist Trump in reaching short-term agreements, constant disorder and popular uprisings will make it impossible for the benefits of such agreements to ever be felt. More importantly, Washington’s willingness to turn a blind eye risks legitimising authoritarian consolidation in a nuclear-armed state. In pursuit of a pragmatic bargain in the short run, the US is producing a more fragile, less democratic, and ultimately less reliable partner.
Pushing for change
In the short term, supporters of Khan will continue to lobby the US to force change in Pakistan and attempt to restore a semblance of democracy in a country that has long been ruled by generals rather than politicians. In July, Khan’s sons were in the US, meeting with politicians in the hope of revitalising the support that Congress had shown Khan last year. The pair spoke with Republican Representative Brad Sherman, who subsequently reaffirmed his support for Khan on X, as well as reconnecting with Grenell, who continues to link Khan’s plight to that of all political prisoners around the world. Unfortunately, this is not a link that has yet been made by the US president.
Elsewhere, PTI leader and former aide to Khan, Zulfikar Bukhari, testified before the US Congress’ Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission. Bukhari underscored that Khan “remains the single most significant democratic voice in Pakistan”, railing against the notion that the military-backed PML-N is the legitimate government of the country. The former aide also highlighted the continued repression and forced conversions of religious minorities throughout Pakistan. Bukhari painted an overall bleak picture of democracy and life in Pakistan which would have been of grave concern to Congress if Pakistan was an adversary of the US, let alone an increasingly significant ally.
Despite these attempts to influence Washington, Khan and his supporters should not hold their breath. Trump has shown that his approach to foreign policy in his second term will be transactional in nature, driven by an enthusiasm to offer favourable terms to governments willing to share the resources and wealth of their countries with American corporations. For the time being, therefore, Sharif and Munir have more to offer Trump than an imprisoned Khan, who is unlikely to see a change of fortune in the foreseeable future.
DISCLAIMER: All views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent that of the 9DASHLINE.com platform.
Author biography
Marcus Andreopoulos is a Senior Research Fellow at the international policy assessment group, the Asia-Pacific Foundation, and a Subject Matter Expert with the Global Threats Advisory Group at NATO’s Defence Education Enhancement Programme. Marcus is currently pursuing a PhD in international history at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Image credit: Flickr/Trump White House Archived.