IK mulling filing case against controversial US diplomat Donald Lu?

ISLAMABAD: The incarcerated Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Friday reportedly threatened to register a case against controversial US diplomat Donald Lu, the official in the United States he accuses of overthrowing his government.

Her sister Aleema Khan, talking to journalists after meeting her brother in Adiala Jail, said that the ex-prime minister plainly declared that “if he doesn’t get justice from Pakistani courts, a case would be filed against Donald Lu in the US courts”.

She continued that PTI believes that the US embassy in Pakistan was completely involved in the conspiracy to topple Khan’s government.

Aleema said that the Islamabad High Court had issued a stay order in the cipher case. She said some clauses were added to the case, which can lead to a death sentence or life imprisonment.

“We should be told what crime was committed by the PTI chairman that such clauses were added. It is a concocted case which was filed against Imran Khan by characters like Rana Sanaullah Khan and others which has nothing to do with ground realities,” she said

She said that Khan was in good health and had developed a good routine during his jail, adding she did not receive any complaints from him regarding his food.

The PTI chief is currently in Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail, along with his deputy Shah Mahmood Qureshi, in the cipher case.

A special court was hearing the case but IHC issued a stay order on Khan’s appeal and now the PTI chief has been kept in confinement in a case registered against him by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

The cipher controversy first emerged on March 27, 2022, when Imran Khan — less than a month before his ouster in April 2022 — while addressing a public rally waved a letter before the crowd, claiming that it was a cipher from a foreign nation that had conspired with his political rivals to have PTI government overthrown.

He did not reveal the contents of the letter nor did he mention the name of the nation it came from. But a few days later, he accused the United States of conspiring against him and alleged that Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Affairs Donald Lu had sought his removal.

The cipher was about former Pakistan ambassador to the US Majeed’s meeting with Lu.

The former prime minister, claiming that he was reading contents from the cipher, said that “all will be forgiven for Pakistan if Imran Khan is removed from power”.

Then on March 31, the National Security Committee (NSC) took up the matter and decided to issue a “strong demarche” to the US for its “blatant interference in the internal affairs of Pakistan”.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023