PM offers to show secret letter to CJ

Ministers say central character is Nawaz

ISLAMABAD:

Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Monday he would show the “threatening letter” that he referred to in his public rally in Islamabad on March 27 to the chief justice of Pakistan (CJP), the head of the highest institution of Pakistan.

Charing a meeting of the party spokespersons, the prime minister briefed them on the current political situation, particularly the secret letter, which he said contained the evidence of foreign hand in the conspiracy to topple the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government.

However, the office of the Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) has expressed reservation on the government announcement that Prime Minister Imran Khan is ready to share a letter — that he claimed during the PTI's March 27 rally contained evidence of a "foreign-funded conspiracy" to topple his government — with the chief justice of Pakistan.

LIVE #APPNews: Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting @fawadchaudhry along with Federal Minister for Planning @Asad_Umar addressing press conference #Islamabad https://t.co/YtGrEwlvAu

— APP 🇵🇰 (@appcsocialmedia) March 29, 2022

A senior official in the AGP office revealed to The Express Tribune that Attorney General for Pakistan Khalid Jawed Khan has convened his concern that it is not a matter related to court or the judiciary. “Therefore, there is no need to share it with the chief justice.”

According to sources, the prime minister told the participants that the letter was received on March 7 and that it directly mentioned the no-confidence motion against him. They added that the prime minister offered to show the letter to the CJP.

“The purpose of showing the letter to the chief justice is to reveal the truth of the letter,” a source said, quoting the prime minister as saying. “The letter can’t be shown to more people, given foreign policy [considerations],” the source added.

Imran told the party spokespersons that the letter directly mentioned the no-confidence motion. “As soon as we received the letter, the no-confidence motion was immediately filed.” He added, according to sources, the world powers had always been influencing governments in Pakistan.

The country’s political temperature rose sharply after the opposition filed a no-confidence motion against the prime minister on March 8. This week saw two big rallies by both the ruling PTI and the joint opposition.

Read: PTI 'running away' from facing no-confidence motion: Murad

On Sunday, Prime Minister Imran in his speech at a public rally in Islamabad claimed that there was a “foreign-funded plot” being hatched against his government. He showed a letter, without divulging its contents, as evidence of the existence of the conspiracy aimed at toppling his government.

Imran told the party spokespersons that he had promised the nation that he would never bow down to anyone. He assured that the no-confidence motion will fail. He also assured that the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) which parted ways with the ruling coalition on Monday, would return to the PTI’s side.

Imran explained that the decision to offer the Punjab chief ministership to Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid’s (PML-Q) Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi was taken after due consideration. “Achieving big goals requires hard and big decisions,” the sources quoted the prime minister as saying.

Meanwhile, talking to PTI lawmakers from Sindh, the prime minister said that when the rulers had clear intentions, all the conspiracies hatched, internally or externally, were bound to fail. He added that Sunday night’s rally in Islamabad was the country’s biggest public gathering, reflecting public trust in PTI.

In a separate media talk later, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry and Planning Minister Asad Umar also said that the prime minister was willing to show the secret letter to the CJP, adding that the central character in the letter was the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Supremo Nawaz Sharif.

“If anyone has any doubt, then the prime minister is ready to show this letter he waved in front of the nation during the speech to the chief justice since he [CJP] is in an important position,” said Umar. “The ‘central character’ in the letter sent to the prime minister was PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif.”

The minister said that the letter was dated before the filing of the no-confidence motion yet it directly mentioned it. “I have seen this letter, it really exists,” Umar claimed. “It bluntly stated that if the no-confidence motion was not successful, it could have dire consequences,” he added.

“There are some legal restrictions, so at this point, the letter was only shown to the top army leadership whereas some important ministers of the federal cabinet also know about it,” Umar continued. “The no-confidence motion and the foreign conspiracy are intertwined,” the minister added.

“The prime minister is elected by the people and is accountable to them; so he wants the letter to be communicated to the people to a certain extent because the letter is a national secret and is directly related to our foreign policy.”

Information Minister Chaudhry said that Nawaz Sharif should not be allowed to leave the country because people like him got involved with the “international establishment”. The minister added that the letter was not with the media and the purported letter shown on some TV channels was fake. “One of the journalists read an EU letter which was already public and the other shared a fake letter.”

Umar said the lawmakers “do not want to be deliberately involved in any activity that is against the country and the nation”, adding: “Until now they were ignorant but now the situation has come before them and they know how this game is played. Would they still want to be a part of it?”