FORMER CIA TOP OFFICIAL SURFACES AS KEY IMRAN ADVISOR

Grenier was, earlier, the CIA’S White House representative during the Iraq campaign. He was relieved of his post after a year in the job in February 2006 by then CIA chief Porter Goss, reportedly for not being “aggressive” enough while pursuing Al-qaeda leaders and its networks.

The Sunday Guardian reached out to Grenier, over a period of two weeks, seeking his views and responses on these Khan related developments, but he chose not to respond. Imran Khan, on 26 November, in another surprising move, while speaking from Rawalpindi, announced that he was calling off the “long march” to Islamabad, which he started in end October, because of the “chaos” and “havoc” which was likely to take place. His decision came hours after Asim Munir, with whom Khan shares a strained relationship, was appointed the new Chief of Army Staff of the Pakistan Army on 24 November, replacing Qamar Javed Bajwa.

The said march was undertaken by Khan to put pressure on the leadership of the ruling party and the men in uniform at General Headquarters, Rawalpindi to bring forward the August 2023 parliamentary elections. Both these big decisions by Khan, which would have been difficult to predict till very recently, and can be attributed to Grenier, are aimed at positioning Khan as a “stable” bankable leader in the eyes of the people who matter in Washington, rather than an eccentric individual as his past actions might have suggested.

Khan’s increasing popularity and the failed assassination attempt on him have increased his chance of coming back to power in August next year. Grenier, due to the change in the political dispensation in Washington, has now got more pull in the Hill, something which he is likely to put to use in the coming days to improve Khan’s perception. He is right now associated with a strategic advisory firm based in Westport, Connecticut.