This assessment does not rest on conspiracy theories or a single dramatic episode. It draws instead from Pakistan’s own record of intelligence-led political manipulation, most clearly seen in the dismantling of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) in Karachi, and now increasingly mirrored in the treatment of PTI at the national level. This assessment does not rest on conspiracy theories or a single dramatic episode. It draws instead from Pakistan’s own record of intelligence-led political manipulation, most clearly seen in the dismantling of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) in Karachi, and now increasingly mirrored in the treatment of PTI at the national level.