Bilawal seeks clarification on ‘treason’ charge

Says military, Foreign Office if NSC declared 197 MNAs traitors

ISLAMABAD:

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has sought clarification from the Foreign Office, the Defence Ministry and the military spokesperson regarding meeting of the National Security Committee (NSC) over claims of Prime Minister Imran Khan of the ‘threatening letter’.

In a tweet on Monday, Bilawal said that the Pakistan army spokesperson should explain whether the 197 members of the National Assembly were declared traitors in the National Security Committee meeting by declaring them part of an external conspiracy.

“ExPM IK is using ‘foreign conspiracy’ to justify his coup. Will @OfficialDGISPR [director general of Inter-Service Public Relations] clarify did NSC meeting declare the 197 members of NA traitors and part of a foreign plot?” the PPP chairman wrote on his twitter handle.

“Can foreign office or defense ministry produce any official correspondence between 7-27th on foreign sazish [conspiracy],” he said. “Surly a plot of this scale would have been uncovered by our own intelligence agencies and other institutions not just an ambassadors cable? Imran’s ego is not more important than Pakistan,” he added.

The PPP chairman was referring to a meeting of the NSC, convened last week against the backdrop of alleged “foreign-funded plot” against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government. The ‘plot’ was based on a diplomatic cable the Pakistani ambassador in the US wrote to the Foreign Office last month.

The NSC meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Imran and attended by federal ministers for defence, energy, information, interior, finance, human rights and planning, besides chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, services chiefs, national security adviser and senior officers.

The committee expressed grave concern at the communication, terming the language used by the foreign official undiplomatic. It was decided that Pakistan would issue a strong demarche to the country in question both in Islamabad and in that country’s capital through proper channel.

Consequent to that meeting, the Foreign Ministry lodged a formal protest with the US. Acting US envoy in Islamabad was summoned to the ministry and handed the demarche. The US was told that the use of such undiplomatic language was unacceptable.

Read Imran’s actions amount to high treason, charges opposition

On March 27, during a PTI public rally in Islamabad, Imran waved a letter, claiming that it was the evidence of a foreign-funded conspiracy against the government. Later it was stated that the secret memo contained minutes of the meeting between the Pakistani envoy and a US official.

A handout issued by the Prime Minister’s Office last week said that the national security adviser briefed the NSC on the communication of a senior official of a foreign country to Pakistan’s ambassador in the said country in a formal meeting, which was duly conveyed by the ambassador to the Foreign Ministry.

The NSC concluded that the communication amounted to blatant interference in the internal affairs of Pakistan, which was unacceptable under any circumstances. However, it did not say if the letter constituted a conspiracy against the sitting government or the opposition parties were part of the plan.