ISLAMABAD: US Assistant Secretary of State Donald Lu on Wednesday rubbished former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan’s allegations his government was ousted via a conspiracy orchestrated by Washington, describing it as a “conspiracy theory” and a “lie.”
Lu testified as a subcommittee of the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the US House of Representatives held a hearing on relations between the two countries. The hearing was titled: “Future of democracy in Pakistan and the US-Pakistan relationship.”
The American official is at the center of the “cipher” controversy as it is popularly known in Pakistan. It relates to an alleged diplomatic correspondence between Washington and Islamabad that Khan said was proof his ouster as PM was part of a US conspiracy to remove him. Washington has repeatedly denied Khan’s accusations.
In January, a Pakistani court handed Khan and his close aide Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who was the country’s foreign minister during Khan’s premiership, a 10-year jail term each on charges of leaking the diplomatic cable to unauthorized individuals for political gain.
“I want to be very clear on this point. These allegations — this conspiracy theory — is a lie,” Lu said during the hearing when asked whether the US had conspired to remove Khan from office.
“It is a complete falsehood.”
Khan became Pakistan’s first prime minister to be ousted from office via a parliamentary vote in April 2022. The former prime minister remains incarcerated since August on a slew of charges he says are politically motivated,
Lu pointed out that the then-Pakistan ambassador to the US even testified to his government that there was no conspiracy to remove Khan.
His testimony was marred by chants of “liar” and Free Imran Khan” by a person attending the proceedings.
“We respect the sovereignty of Pakistan, we respect the principle that Pakistanis should be the only ones choosing their leaders through a democratic process,” Lu said.
The hearing was announced last week after over 30 members of the US Congress wrote to President Joe Biden and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, asking them not to recognize Pakistan’s new government under Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Sharif was elected prime minister of Pakistan this month after the contentious Feb. 8 election. Khan has accused Pakistan’s election regulator of manipulating votes in favor of his political opponents. His Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party claims it won a two-thirds majority in polls.
Pakistan’s national polls were marred by violence, the suspension of mobile networks on election day for security reasons, and unprecedented delays in announcing results.
Despite countrywide protests by the PTI and other political parties against alleged rigging, Pakistan’s election regulator and its previous caretaker government have denied that polls were rigged.
