Islamabad, Pakistan: On December 19, 2024, the US again imposed sanctions on Pakistan, and the Foreign Office of Pakistan believes the US decision to impose sanctions is unfortunate and biased.

Russia, Iran, China, and Pakistan are facing the Season of US Sanctions and surprisingly all four countries are members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) from the Global South and believe in Indigenous defence capabilities, and are achieving an impressive level of self-reliance over defence requirements. Against all four countries, the United States has ‘reasons to believe that they are endangering US security”. This US mantra of ‘reason to believe’ destroyed Iraq, Libya, and Afghanistan in the past when the US said that it had reasons to believe that Iraq had chemical weapons as well as weapons of mass destruction while it claimed that it had reasons to believe that Afghanistan had ‘dirty bomb’ and it also had reason to believe that Qadaffi was a constant threat to US security in the Middle East.

The US Department of State has reasons to sanction Russia (Ukraine War and otherwise), it is believed that Iran wants to develop nuclear weapons for its defence requirements so it is under a constant wave of sanctions. Regarding China, the US has categorically said that it is the most dangerous enemy of the United States so is facing a constant series of sanctions. What for Pakistan is facing the Season of US Sanctions? Islamabad is a time-tested ally of Washington and has been at the forefront in South Asia whenever its support was required. Furthermore, US sanctions are mostly related to Pakistan’s missile program that is decades old and is per defence demands in an environment where its historic enemy India has been trying to find reasons to harm Pakistan. Besides, why did this series of US sanctions start just after former prime minister Imran Khan was voted out of power?

In October 2023, the US imposed sanctions on three Chinese suppliers to Pakistan’s missile program. This was two days after Pakistan conducted its second test launch of the Ababeel medium-range ballistic missile.

In September 2024, the United States imposed sanctions on five Chinese companies and an individual claiming they were supplying equipment to test large-diameter rocket motors, including the Shaheen-3 and Ababeel, and, potentially, other larger systems.

In October 2024, the US blacklists over two dozen firms tied to Pakistan and Iran weapons programs, citing they were supporting missile and drone developments and violations of Pakistan and Iran, calling activities of firms contrary to US national security, including violating export controls, aiding restricted weapons programs, and attempting to bypass sanctions on Russia and Iran. The US Commerce Department stated that “nine Pakistani entities were added to the ban list for contributing to Pakistan’s ballistic missile program.

There are circles within the government of Pakistan that believe that this harsh treatment of the United States against an old friend like Pakistan has something very serious behind and the move is planned by the Zionist lobby that since long wanted to damage Pakistan’s strategic assets and now this lobby became dangerously annoyed when its assets Imran Khan was removed from the power through a vote of no-confidence. Security circles in Pakistan since long claimed that TTP and BLA are directly being funded by India at the direction of the Zionist lobby as India and Israel collaborate against their enemies. Since Imran Khan has been a strategic partner of the Zionist lobby through the House of Goldsmith, this lobby has accelerated its project to destroy Pakistan as it destroyed several countries in the Middle East and Africa. An impartial review of the situation suggests that the claims of security circles of Pakistan are not unfounded because the entire Zionist lobby has geared up to put multidimensional pressure on Pakistan including through US politicians demanding the release of Imran Khan, Zionist media blaming Pakistan for human rights abuses and US State Department slapping Pakistan with sanction and drawing a triangle of Iran-China-Pakistan and claiming this triangle is a security threat to US interests globally. During Imran Khan’s tenure, this lobby managed to harm Pakistan’s relations with China, and the flagship project of Chinese BRI—CPEC was closed down and Chinese firms were harassed through accusations of corruption in Chinese projects. This lobby also managed to create a rift among all friends of Pakistan such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey, UAE, and even European Union countries. Fortunately, Khan was voted out before the total damage was done at a diplomatic level. Now this lobby is working day and night to implement this anti-Pakistan plan and Imran and his associates inside and outside the country are constantly busy selling anti-national narratives, sometimes articles in foreign media, sometimes anti-Pakistan demonstrations abroad, sometimes boycotting domestic products, sometimes attacking the federation, sometimes a movement of civil disobedience and advising Pakistanis not to send remittances, so that they are determined to destroy the entire country to achieve their goals and now they are happy with this attack on Pakistan’s security and are encouraging America to impose such restrictions.

Circles in the government of Pakistan believe that there is a collaborative move against Pakistan by using US-funded media houses such as Voice of America, DIVA, and Radio Mashal, and on the other hand, facilitators such as Adil Raja, Imran Riaz, Siddique Jan, Moeed Pirzada and Zalmay Khalilzad are operating day and night to attack Pakistan through accusing Pakistan for human right abuses. Meanwhile, when organizations like Amnesty International and the Human Rights Commission protect them by becoming their shields, covering them in the cloak of sympathy.

‘False narrative building is a dangerous weapon made by world powers, powered by money and semiotic techniques for killing democracies in developing countries such as Pakistan. All cognitive tools are being used to create fault lines by fanning religion, sectarianism, ethnic discrimination, or linguistics. At the same time, an effective atmosphere is being created for its effectiveness by strangling the state’s economy and national security institutions. The sooner this is recognized and broken, the better, otherwise it will not take long to reach the situation of Syria, Libya, Iraq’, commented academician and semiotician Shazia Anwer Cheema when asked to comment on the situation that Pakistan is facing.

She was of the opinion that it is the foremost responsibility of the state machinery to align all resources in a synchronizing way to fight back the situation and the core responsibility lies on media managers of Pakistan to realize the situation and engage media academicians and practitioners to mitigate the situation.