ISLAMABAD: With his whereabouts yet to be known, Azam Khan, principal secretary of former prime minister Imran Khan has claimed that his ex-boss had “pre-planned” the US cypher drama.
Azam, who has been “missing” since last month, has recorded his statement against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan before a magistrate under section 164 of the CrPC, with no information on his whereabouts.
Imran Khan was ousted via a parliamentary vote in April last year. At that time, he had alleged that Washington orchestrated a plan to remove him from office as he brandished the cypher at a public rally to back his claims.
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”.
According to Azam, the ex-prime minister then said that the cable could be used for “creating a narrative against establishment and opposition”.
The confession on part of Azam Khan mentioned that Imran Khan told the former that the cypher could be used to divert the public’s attention towards “foreign involvement” in the opposition’s no-confidence motion.
Azam said 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”.
The confession mentioned that the ex-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. He mentioned, 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.
