ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party criticized the government on Sunday for allowing the new US envoy, Donald Blome, to visit “sensitive” border areas near Afghanistan while claiming it was part of the same “conspiracy” that led to the fall of its administration earlier this year.
Ambassador Blome went to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), ruled by Khan’s own political faction, on Wednesday to highlight his country’s contribution to the economic development of the province in the last 75 years.
He also visited the Torkham border crossing where he was briefed on the positive impact of trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan on the lives of the residents of KP.
“US envoy & his gang flying over sensitive areas of [Pakistan] on way to Torkham & surveying lay of land + official briefing & red carpet,” said Shireen Mazari, Khan’s close aide and a senior PTI leader, in a Twitter post. “Areas ordinary Pak citizens [can’t] go [to]!”
She maintained the US envoy was “Viceroy in all but name” while adding that his visit to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border had helped fulfil “one more US regime change conspiracy agenda item.”
Mazari has frequently criticized the US and the new Pakistani administration since Khan was forced to step down after losing a parliamentary vote of no-confidence in April.
The former prime minister has consistently maintained his ouster was the result of an American conspiracy, a claim repeatedly denied by US officials.
Mazari’s Twitter post drew social media criticism since the US envoy met Chief Minister Mahmood Khan, who is head of the PTI administration in the province, and donated 36 vehicles to KP’s health department to help its rapid response teams fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
In an interview to Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper, Blome said his country was helping the KP administration improve health and educational facilities and ensure greater economic development.