PTI Chairman and former Prime Minister Imran Khan has welcomed his audio leak on the US cipher and is demanding that the government should release the cipher to the public.
While talking to the media at the Punjab House, Imran Khan said that it is “a good thing” thing that the conversation was leaked, adding that the diplomatic cipher they were discussing should also be released to the public.
“Well done on leaking it. I would say the cipher should get leaked too […] and so everyone knows what a big foreign conspiracy was made,” Imran Khan said.
Read more: Will “expose” those involved in “foreign conspiracy”: Imran Khan
“I haven’t even played [on it] yet. Now [we will] play when they expose it,” he added. He also accused Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of leaking the audio conversation.
آڈیو لیک کے بعد اب سائیفر لیک ہونا چاہیئے- عمران خان کا دلچسپ رد عمل pic.twitter.com/tfUT4jj0aD
— Abdul Qadir (@AbdulqadirARY) September 28, 2022
Imran Khan’s audio leak
The audio leaks fiasco which engulfed the entire nation targeted Imran Khan earlier Wednesday. A sound bite of former prime minister Imran Khan speaking about the cipher surfaced after multiple audio leaks of top government officials.
In the alleged conversation, Imran Khan can be heard talking to his close aide Azam Khan who is informing Imran Khan about the US cipher. The audio leak has raised the question of that was the PM kept unaware of the cipher.
“We can’t take the name of America. So let’s just play with it. We will say that the date was already there,” Imran Khan allegedly said to Azam Khan.
The then principal secretary Azam Khan suggested holding a meeting on the cipher issue with then Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Foreign Secretary (Sohail Mahmood) where the letter will be read out and converted into “minutes”.
Read more: Imran Khan’s alleged audio on US cipher leaked
“After this, we will write the analysis, so it becomes part of the record. In the analysis, we will say that the language used [in the letter] — in line with diplomatic norms — is termed a threat,” Azam Khan allegedly said.
Pertinent to mention that the cipher, based on then-envoy Asad Majeed’s meeting with State Department official Donald Lu, is at the center of PTI’s claim that the US conspired with elements within Pakistan to dislodge Imran Khan from office.