RAWALPINDI: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founding chairman Imran Khan on Tuesday demanded a fresh inquiry into United States Assistant Secretary of State Donald Lu’s statement denying “cypher conspiracy” that US engineered his ouster from power by supporting the then opposition’s no-confidence motion in April 2022.
Testifying before a Congressional panel last week, the top US diplomat said: “I wanna be very clear on this point [that] this conspiracy theory is a lie [and] it is a complete falsehood.”
Speaking to journalists at Adiala jail, Khan denied the reports that the US envoy met him in the prison. He said that he would speak to the US envoy about Lu’s statement and the alleged role of the US embassy in the cyphergate if he met him.
“The original copy of cypher is with the Foreign Office, we were only given a paraphrased copy [of the document],” the former premier said while referring to the allegations that he misplaced the classified cypher document that he received as the prime minister.
The PTI founder said that a prime minister is “not the security guard” of his office; instead, there are some security protocols for the PM office.
Khan also called for a separate judicial commission to investigation into May 9 incidents and February 8 elections.
“A political party is being eliminated on the pretext of May 9 events,” he added.
The former prime minister said that the president and Senate elections have no value after a “rigged election”.
He then said that the authorities can keep him in prison but all his party leaders and workers should be released from jail.
During a hearing titled ‘Pakistan After the elections: Examining the future of Democracy in Pakistan and the US Pakistan relationship,’ last week, the US assistant secretary as the key witness said: “At no point does it [cypher] accuse the United States government or me personally of taking steps against Imran Khan.”
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan has termed Donald Lu’s statement on cyphergate a “lie”, and demanded a reopening inquiry into the controversy.
Reacting to the US assistant secretary of state’s testimony before a Congressional panel, PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan on March 21 termed Lu’s statement on cyphergate a “lie”, and demanded reopening inquiry into the controversy.
The cypher controversy first emerged on March 27, 2022, when Khan — less than a month before his ouster in April 2022 — while addressing a public rally waved a letter before the crowd, claiming that it was a cypher from a foreign nation that had conspired with his political rivals to have PTI government overthrown.
He did not reveal the contents of the letter nor did he mention the name of the nation it came from. But a few days later, he accused the United States of conspiring against him and alleged that Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Affairs Donald Lu had sought his removal.
The cypher was sent by then Pakistan’s ambassador to US Asad Majeed.
