Imran urges CJP, President Alvi to investigate 'foreign conspiracy'

Former premier pleads both to establish investigative commissions, claims citizens betrayed of democratic rights

ISLAMABAD:

Former Prime Minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Saturday drafted letters to President Dr Arif Alvi and the Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial, urging them to investigate the summary of an official meeting held at the Pakistan Embassy with Mr. Donald Lu, the United States assistant secretary of state for South Asia and another US official.

In the letters, Imran declared that the summary contained proof that the vote of no-confidence (VNC)- which saw him ousted on April 9 was part of a “foreign-funded conspiracy”.

The former premier’s “plea” to CJ Bandial stated, “given the grave nature of this threat to democracy in Pakistan through an externally-engineered regime change conspiracy, should the SCP [Supreme Court of Pakistan] not have, examined the content of the cipher before demanding the VNC be held immediately?”

Similarly, Imran in his letter to the president said, “as Head of the State of Pakistan and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, it is incumbent upon you to take action and order a public inquiry into this threat”.

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Pleading both parties to take “immediate action”, the ousted premier claimed that in the proceedings of the last cabinet meeting, his government had concluded that the cipher “clearly reflected a regime change conspiracy,” adding that the “shifting allegiances” of the allied parties and the “purchase of loyalties of PTI members” was suspect.

The PTI chairman also requested that the apex court launch a commission to conduct “open hearings in order to establish who all in Pakistan were involved in the regime change,” adding that the Supreme Court had before it the Memogate precedence.

The ex-PM also informed President Alvi that the Presidency’s “silence” on the matter inculcated a sense of “betrayal and helplessness amongst the people of Pakistan”.

Khan furthered that the parties’ failure to investigate or condemn the “conspiracy” was bringing the people out to protest “what they see as a betrayal of their democratic right to vote.”

Imran called upon the SC and President Alvi to “live up” to the trust placed upon them to “protect the people of Pakistan from such foreign conspiracies.”