Donald Lu, the US Assistant Secretary of State, has yet again rejected former prime minister Imran Khan’s allegations that US engineered his ouster from power by supporting the then opposition’s no-confidence motion in April 2022.
Testifying before a Congressional panel on Wednesday, 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.”
The hearing titled ‘Pakistan After the elections: Examining the future of Democracy in Pakistan and the US Pakistan relationship,’ was announced by the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee where the assistant secretary was the key witness.
When asked about the allegations of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder, the US assistant secretary said he viewed the media reports regarding the alleged leaked cipher that Khan claimed contained the threat issued by Lu in a meeting with then-Pakistan’s ambassador Asad Majeed in Washington in 2022 days before the ouster of the PTI-led government.
“At no point does it accuse the United States government or me personally of taking steps against Imran Khan,” he added.
Moreover, the US diplomat said then Pakistan’s envoy to Washington Asad Majeed also testified to his government that there was no conspiracy.
“We respect the sovereignty of Pakistan, we respect the principle that Pakistani people should be the only ones to choose their leader through democratic process,” he remarked.
The cipher 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 cipher 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 cipher was sent by then Pakistan’s ambassador to US Asad Majeed.
