ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan said on Sunday he desired a “good relationship” with the US, urging it was time to “move on,” signaling a softening of his stance toward Washington whom he has repeatedly accused of removing him from office via a conspiracy.

Ousted via a parliamentary vote of confidence in April 2022, Khan has blamed his political rivals for taking part in a Washington-backed conspiracy to remove him from office. Both the government and Washington have repeatedly denied the allegations.

The former premier has shaped his anti-government narrative around an alleged cypher, based on a meeting between then Pakistani Ambassador to the US Asad Majeed and State Department official Donald Lu.

When asked how he could repair terms between Islamabad and Washington if he becomes prime minister again, Khan said it was in the interest of the people of Pakistan to have good relations with the US.

When asked whether Khan believed the US played a role in removing him from power, he reiterated the cypher is real.

“Having said that, it’s in the past, we have to move on,” he said. “It’s in the interest of Pakistan to have a good relationship with the US and that’s what we intend to do.”

“Whatever happened, now as things unfold, it wasn’t the US who told Pakistan, what now evidence has come out, it was [former army chief] General Bajwa who somehow managed to tell the Americans that I was anti-American,” he said.

“So, it wasn’t imported [regime change] from there, it was exported from here to there,” he added.

Once widely seen as an ally of Pakistan’s powerful military establishment, Khan has turned his guns on former army chief Bajwa for not intervening to save his government.