ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan’s then-principal secretary Azam Khan has “recorded” a statement, terming the US cypher a “conspiracy” used by the ex-PM to “manipulate for creating a narrative against establishment and opposition,” media reported on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
In response to the development, Imran termed Azam an “honest man” and said he would not accept the statement until he heard the bureaucrat say it himself.<\/p>\n
Azam, who has been “missing” since last month, has recorded his statement under CrPC 164 before a magistrate, the sources added, with no information on his whereabouts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Khan, ousted via a parliamentary vote in April last year, had alleged on March 27, 2022, that Washington orchestrated a plan to remove him from office \u2014 and brandished the cypher at a public rally to back his claims. The US has time and again denied such allegations, terming them\u00a0“categorically false”.<\/p>\n
In his confession, Azam claimed that when he shared the cypher with Imran, the former premier was “euphoric” and termed the language as a “US blunder”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The ex-prime minister then said, according to Azam, that the cable could be used for “creating a narrative against establishment and opposition”.<\/p>\n
The confession mentions that Khan also told Azam that the cypher could be used to divert the public’s attention towards “foreign involvement” in the opposition’s no-confidence motion.<\/p>\n
Azam’s confession mentions that Imran told him he would display the cypher in front of the public and “twist the narrative that a foreign conspiracy is being hatched in collusion with local partners and play [the] victim card”.<\/p>\n
When Azam, according to the sources, told Imran Khan that the cypher was a secret document and its content could not be disclosed before the public, the then-premier suggested a formal meeting with then-foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and then-foreign secretary Sohail Mahmood “where they can read the cypher from the foreign ministry’s copy (as Imran Khan’s original copy was still lost) and from minutes of the meeting further decision can be made”.<\/p>\n
The confession mentioned that the then-premier decided to call special meetings of the cabinet and the National Security Division to discuss the cypher and note down the minutes of the meetings.<\/p>\n
However, he mentioned that till the time he was Imran’s principal secretary, the cypher was not returned to the Prime Minister’s Office as Imran had lost the original document.<\/p>\n