US ‘bluntly’ snubs PM’s claim, yet again

Washington says there is ‘absolutely no truth’ to allegations of foreign conspiracy to overthrow his govt

ISLAMABAD:

The US has bluntly rejected embattled Prime Minister Imran Khan's allegations of a "foreign conspiracy" plotted in Washington to overthrow his government with the help of the opposition parties, saying there was "absolutely no truth" to these claims.

Responding to a question on PM Imran’s allegations of the US encouraging the no-confidence vote against his government, Deputy State Department Spokesperson Jalina Porter during a press conference on Friday said: "Let me just say very bluntly there is absolutely no truth to these allegations."

She added that Washington continued to follow these developments and it respected and supported Pakistan's constitutional process and rule of law.

“But again, these allegations are absolutely not true," she said.

In an address to the nation a day earlier, the 69-year-old prime minister had announced that he would not recognise an “imported government” after his expected ouster through a no-confidence motion; instead he would go to public and begin struggle against a foreign-backed set-up in the country.

Urging the masses to come out against the “imported government” on Sunday night, Imran had pledged in his televised address to the nation that he would not sit idly by and continue struggle against the foreign intervention into Pakistan’s internal matters.

This was the first time when the prime minister openly talked about his future plans about going to the public. Hitherto, he has been promising to turn the tables on the opposition parties at the last minute.

Speaking a day after the Supreme Court set aside National Assembly Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri’s ruling of rejecting the no-confidence motion against the prime minister and the subsequent dissolution of the assembly, Imran had said he “accepted” the apex court’s judgment.

However, he had expressed his disappointment at the decision for not entertaining the issue of foreign conspiracy aimed at toppling his government.

He had also regretted that the apex court did not even see the evidence of foreign conspiracy.

The prime minister had said that he wished the court had at least ordered a probe into the “threat letter” and taken suo motu notice of the “brazen horse-trading” under way at the Centre and in Punjab.

“It [horse-trading] doesn’t happen even in the banana republics. No democracy anywhere in the world allows such open buying and selling of lawmakers. I’m only disappointed to the extent that the Supreme Court didn’t even say a word about horse trading,” Imran had said, adding that he had never seen anything like this in any Western democracies.

On the “cypher message” that the Pakistan’s former ambassador to the US sent to Islamabad after meeting with US officials, Imran had said he wanted to share the letter. However, he had added that he could not because the code of the message would become known to the world.