PTI endorses Imran's call for 'leaking' diplomatic cypher too

Ministers claim leaks confirm efforts were made to hide US cypher from ex-prime minister

Listen to article

ISLAMABAD:

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders have endorsed party chief Imran Khan's stance on his purported audio leak, in which he could be heard discussing the ‘foreign conspiracy’ cypher.

The former prime minister following the release of the clip, said it was a good thing that the alleged conversation between him and his principal secretary at the time, Azam Khan, came to light.

He accused Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the ruling party of leaking the audio and said, "well done".

Read Imran Khan sends diplomatic cypher to CJP

A tweet from the party's official account quoted Imran as calling for the cypher to be leaked too.

آڈیو لیک کے بعد اب سائیفر لیک ہونا چاہیئے- عمران خان #سائفر_ایک_حقیقت_ہے
pic.twitter.com/9KheSQY4CG

— PTI (@PTIofficial) September 28, 2022

The PTI's senior vice president Fawad Chaudhry said that “the new leaks only confirm that efforts were made to hide the US cypher from the [former] prime minister”.

نئ لیکس سے صرف یہ کنفرم ہوتا ہے کہ امریکی مراسلہ وزیر اعظم سے چھپانے کی کوشش کی گئ

— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) September 28, 2022

Senior PTI leader Sayed Zulfi Bukhari also turned to Twitter to voice out his opinion. He claimed that the leaked audios were aligned with the PTI’s narrative regarding the cypher, adding that the leak only ‘strengthens’ their stance.

IK’s audio is completely in agreement with our narrative,cipher was hidden from the PM.
Best possibility was to bring into bureaucratic records-everything mentioned in cipher & written by ambassador.

Great job putting up this audio,further strengthens our stance.#PMOfficeLeaks

— Sayed Z Bukhari (@sayedzbukhari) September 28, 2022

Former energy minister Hammad Azhar also called for the cypher to be released "so the country can decide whether it was a conspiracy or even more than that.”

When Imran Khan was PM, his govt was removed following the exact same script as was given in the cipher. Let that sink in.
I think the cipher should be released now and the people of Pakistan should decide whether it was a conspiracy or even more than that. https://t.co/kCpw8WzPEr

— Hammad Azhar (@Hammad_Azhar) September 28, 2022

The leak

Earlier today, an audio leak allegedly of former premier Imran Khan and his principal secretary at the time, Azam Khan, surfaced in which the two were discussing the diplomatic cypher.

The purported audio file starts midway through a conversation between the two and is titled 'Story of the cypher conspiracy part 1'.

“Now we have to play on this. We don’t have to take America’s name, just play with this,” the PTI chief says allegedly in the audio clip. The second voice, claimed to be Azam's, advises that a meeting be held on the matter first.

The second voice then adds that whatever Qureshi (then FM) reads out in the meeting, "will be written on a copy" so that "it comes on record that this happened". "I will then prepare meeting minutes that the foreign secretary has prepared this".