ISLAMABAD: The cabinet has decided in principle to prosecute Imran Khan, leaders of his party — including Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Asad Umar — and his former principal secretary Azam Khan over a leaked conversation discussing a diplomatic cable from a United States official that is at the centre of former prime minister’s allegations that his ouster was orchestrated by Washington.
The chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) party was ousted through a contentious vote of no-confidence in April. He has since shaped his narrative around the cable, called cipher, based on a meeting between Asad Majeed Khan, then-ambassador of Pakistan to the US, and Donald Lu, an assistant secretary of state for south and central Asian affairs.
Khan first mentioned the international scheme during a rally in Islamabad in March in which he took out a piece of paper from his pocket and described it as a written threat from a foreign power, without mentioning the name.
Later, it turned out, he was mentioning a diplomatic cable dispatched by the ambassador after his conversation with Lu. According to a report, the conversation took place at the ambassador’s farewell lunch on March 7 which was also attended by a note-taker from Pakistan along with other officials from both sides.
On Saturday, during a press conference of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) ministers, Maryam Nawaz, the party’s vice president, asked the government to take legal action against Khan over the leaked conversations apparently between Khan and his ministers discussing the confidential cable.
According to a Cabinet Division memo dated October 1, a meeting of the body on Friday constituted a sub-committee “to deliberate and recommend actions regarding the conversation of the former Prime Minister Imran Khan, his political associates and the then secretary to the PM, available on the internet regarding the cypher message received from Washington (Cypher No. 1-0678 dated March 7, 2022)”.
“Therefore, the apex investigation agency (FIA) may be directed to inquire into the matter by constituting a team of senior officers, which may co-opt officers/officials from other intelligence agencies for the purpose, and to proceed further against the perpetrators in accordance with the law,” it said.
The cabinet also sought the implementation report on its suggestions “immediately”.
According to the memo, the probe committee will consist of the representatives of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) parties in the government “along with ministers”.
During the Friday meeting, the cabinet was told that the conversations purportedly featuring Khan and his ministers exposed “the criminal conspiracy of the former government” as it gave the cable “fictitious meanings for political mileage and subsequently it was stolen after fraud, forgery, fabrication.”
