ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan on Saturday wrote letters to President Dr Arif Alvi and Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial, urging them to investigate the “threat letter” which the PTI chairman claims is evidence of a “foreign-funded conspiracy” to topple his government.
In the letters, the ex-premier noted that the CJP and president had in their possession copies of the cipher which was given to the then Pakistani ambassador Asad Majeed Khan by US Assistant Secretary of State Donald Lu.
“The PTI government, as reflected in the last cabinet meeting, was of the view the contents of the cipher clearly reflect a regime change conspiracy to remove ‘Imran Khan’ from the office of the Prime Minister,” the letters said.
The vote of no-confidence against the PTI chairman was “engineered”, it continued, reasoning the claim with the “shifting allegiance of the then government’s allied parties” and the “purchase of loyalty of some members of PTI”.
Imran also clarified that the cipher was the reason why the former deputy speaker of the National Assembly (NA) had dismissed the no-trust vote until the cipher was investigated.
Subsequently, he requested the CJP and the president to “at least examine the cipher which clearly pointed to a foreign regime change conspiracy” and order an inquiry into it. Imran called on the Supreme Court to constitute a commission to conduct open hearings “in order to establish who all in Pakistan were involved in this regime change conspiracy”.
Before his government was sent packing through a no-trust motion, Imran had repeatedly claimed that the former Pakistani ambassador to the US was told by a senior official of the Biden administration that if the no-confidence resolution succeeded, Pakistan could be forgiven otherwise the country could face dire consequences.
The former PM insists that the no-confidence move against him was part of a foreign conspiracy, claiming that the cable received from the ambassador on March 7, a day before the opposition officially filed the no-trust move against him, was evidence of the conspiracy.
“How could they know about the no-confidence motion even before it was filed?” Imran has asked charged supporters in several public rallies in the past few weeks, adding that local abettors colluded with their “foreign sponsors” to make the alleged conspiracy successful.
It was on the basis of this cable, which he saw as evidence of a conspiracy to oust Imran, that the National Assembly Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri gave a ruling to dismiss the no-trust move against the then premier on April 3, when voting on the resolution was set to take place, terming the motion contradictory to Article 5 of the Constitution, which mandates loyalty to the state for all citizens.
Suri’s ruling was subsequently voided by the Supreme Court and voting on the no-trust resolution finally took place on April 10, as a result of which Imran was removed as prime minister.
