Imran's foreign conspiracy narrative laid bare in audio leak: Sana

PML-N leader ridicules ex-premier for repeatedly using ‘excuse’ of 'falling prey to foreign conspiracy'

ISLAMABAD:

Commenting on the latest audio leak to have stirred controversy, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said on Wednesday that the leak had "laid bare" Imran's "entire narrative of foreign conspiracy".

Addressing a press conference, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader accused the former prime minister of dividing the nation.

Sanaullah ridiculed the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief over his recurring "excuse" of him and his government “falling prey to a foreign conspiracy".

“Today, his entire scheme has been laid bare,” he said.

Read Another audio leak surfaces, reportedly of Imran discussing 'foreign conspiracy' cypher

He furthered that there was important to put "each and every word of the video before the public" to “expose the fraud being done by this conspirator”.

After playing the leaked audio before the media, Sanaullah stated that the conversation was proof that "they [the PTI] were trying to create a plot". He quoted Imran Khan from the audio leak, allegedly instructing his principal secretary Azam Khan to "just play with it.”

He further stated that the two "changed the minutes of the meeting and replaced them with a fabricated story that feeds the PTI's narrative".

“For the past six months, this swindler has been deceiving the public. During his tenure, he destroyed the country’s economy, the political culture and isolated Pakistan on a foreign level, which is why India decided to attack Kashmir, while our country was in a vulnerable state,” he said.

“He has caused irreparable damage to Pakistan politically, morally and economically,” Sana added.

“He should be seen for who he is; and if he is being used for whatever agenda then there should be a stop to this,” he added.

Sanaullah also reminded the PTI supremo of sending the cypher to Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial back in April, saying: “You went to Supreme Court calling for an inquiry on this. You can now go and submit the plea and we will accept, concede and agree to it ourselves.”

In April, Khan had called for an inquiry into the alleged regime change conspiracy by placing parts of the cypher before the federal cabinet and the National Security Committee.

However, back in July the Supreme Court rejected the foreign conspiracy theory of PTI, saying the judicial system does not base its verdicts on speculation.

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

Imran, who was ousted from the office of prime minister through a vote of no confidence earlier this year, had claimed that the move was orchestrated after US envoy Donald Lu wrote a letter to the Pakistani ambassador, allegedly directing him to have the premier ousted or "be prepared to face the consequences".

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 Shah Mehmood Qureshi (then foreign minister) 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".