Azam Khan, the former principal secretary of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, has said that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief’s “cypher drama” was a preplanned conspiracy, Geo News has reported.
Azam Khan has been ‘missing’ since last month, however, he recorded a statement under CrPC 164 before a magistrate on Wednesday, damaging Imran’s claims that he was ousted through a US orchestrated by Donald Lu, a senior officer of the Biden administration.
PTI’s government was removed via a vote of no confidence last year in April. The then Prime Minister alleged on March 27, 2022, that Washington planned the movement to remove him from office and used the so-called cypher to back his claims. The US has repeated denied his accusations.
Later, Khan changed his story, accusing former Chief of Army Staff, General (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa of conspiring to remove him.
Azam Khan also confessed that when he provided Imran with the cypher, he was very happy and labelled the language a “US blunder”.
The ex-prime minister then said, according to Azam, that the cable could be used for “creating a narrative against the establishment and opposition”.
It is also mentioned in the confession that Imran Khan told his principal secretary that the cypher could be used to divert the public’s attention towards “foreign involvement” in the no-confidence motion.
Azam Khan states that when he told Imran Khan that the cypher had secret content and could not be disclosed in a public gathering, the former prime minister suggested a strategy.
He said that Imran called a meeting, which included then-foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and then-foreign secretary Sohail Mahmood, who would tell him the minutes of the meeting as the PTI chief had lost the original copy of the cable.
Reacting to the sensational disclosure of his once most trusted officer, Imran Khan said on Wednesday that Azam Khan is an honest man and he will not believe any statement until he hears everything from Azam himself.
