President Dr Arif Alvi took "serious note" on Tuesday of news items “grossly misquoting and wrongly” highlighting his statement on the matter of the diplomatic cipher, given during an interview with a private news channel.
In the interview given on Monday, President Alvi was reported to have expressed dissatisfaction over the “American conspiracy" narrative related to the removal of his party chairman Imran Khan’s government through a parliamentary no-trust vote and stressed that the matter should be fully investigated.
During the interview, he said that “I am convinced that there should be an investigation on this, but I do not agree that there was a conspiracy”.
In a statement issued by the president’s secretariat today, the president clarified that he clearly said that he had suspicions about a conspiracy, adding that certainty could only be established after a thorough investigation was conducted.
“His position has not changed at all since he sent a letter to the Chief Justice of Pakistan wherein, he requested the Supreme Court for a thorough inquiry into the matter as he strongly believed that the issue must be investigated”, the statement quoted President Alvi as saying.
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The press release maintained that Alvi had referred the matter to the apex court not because he had "no suspicions" about a conspiracy, but because he "had suspicions” as the issue was raised by the former premier and an impartial investigation – with the inclusion of all circumstantial evidence available – was necessary.
The statement quoted the president as saying that, “We cannot ignore the fact that the national outfall of the ‘Cipher’ and its repercussions led to political upheaval, therefore an impartial inquiry, beyond the demarche issued by the Govt of Pakistan, was requested”.
It emphasised that it was “unfortunate” that the president’s words were “distorted on a very grave matter with serious implications”.
“The President has spoken many times on the issue of ‘out of context’ portrayals, including in the Parliament, that create more division in an already polarized atmosphere,” the statement concluded.
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