Secret documents reveal that the US helped Pakistan secure a controversial IMF bailout loan through a secret arms deal to supply weapons to Ukraine. Pakistan sold munitions to the US to support Ukraine’s military, which helped cover Pakistan’s financing gap that the IMF required to approve the loan. This prevented an economic crisis in Pakistan and allowed its new government, installed after the US reportedly encouraged removing Imran Khan, to crack down on dissent. However, the harsh IMF-mandated austerity measures sparked widespread protests. The weapons sales were brokered by a controversial arms dealer and helped Pakistan gain both economic relief from the loan as well as political goodwill from the US.

However, questions remain about how secret military deals factored into the IMF’s assessment, and the crackdown has damaged Pakistan’s troubled democratic process in the aftermath of Khan’s ouster.