ISLAMABAD: Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan said in an interview broadcast on Monday that he had a “perfectly good relationship” with the US administration of President Donald Trump but did not understand why the new government of Joe Biden “never got in touch” with him.

Khan has said friction seemingly began between Pakistan and the US after Biden assumed office in January 2021. Khan’s government, while in power, had repeatedly complained thereafter that the new US president had not contacted the Pakistani PM.

In June last year, Khan said the US had asked Pakistan if it could use its military bases for counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan after international forces pulled out of the war-torn country in August 2021. According to Khan, he had refused, further straining ties. American officials have variously denied the US made such a request.

In recent months, Khan has also accused Washington of working with his political opponents in Pakistan to orchestrate his ouster through a no-confidence motion. The US has repeatedly denied the accusation. Khan was voted out of power by parliament last month in the no-trust motion and Shehbaz Sharif, a leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party, was voted into power.

“I had a perfectly good relationship with the Trump administration,” Khan said in an interview to CNN. “It’s only when the Biden administration came, and it coincided with what was happening in Afghanistan [withdrawal of US forces], and for some reason, which I still don’t know, I never, they never got in touch with me.”

“There was no US ambassador to Pakistan,” he added.

New US ambassador to Islamabad, Donald Bloom, took charge today, Monday.

In the interview, Khan repeated allegations that the US had plotted to oust him, saying US Assistant Secretary of State for Central and South Asia, Donald Lu, who allegedly communicated to Pakistan’s ambassador to the US that Khan needed to be ousted, should be fired.

“He [Lu] tells our Ambassador in an official meeting … he tells the ambassador that unless you get rid of your Prime Minister Imran Khan in a vote of no confidence … he said, unless you get rid of him, Pakistan will suffer consequences,” Khan said. “And then goes on to say, of course, if you get rid of him through the vote of no confidence, all will be forgiven. Such arrogance.”

“This guy should be sacked for bad manners and sheer arrogance. Imagine telling a country, ambassador of a country of 220 million people, that you can get rid of your prime minister.”