ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan on Saturday wrote letters to President Dr Arif Alvi and Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial, urging them to order a public inquiry and the formation of a judicial commission to probe the diplomatic cypher pertaining to the alleged “foreign conspiracy” to what he claimed was behind ouster of his government through a no-confidence motion.

The decision was taken on Friday where the PTI chairman after consultation with senior party leaders decided to write letters to the president and the chief justice to press for formation of the judicial commission.

“You have in your possession a copy of the cypher sent by the then ambassador of Pakistan to the USA containing a summary of an official meeting held in the Pakistan Embassy between Donald Lu, Assistant Secretary of State along with another US official and a note taker and our ambassador along with a note taker and other diplomats of the Mission,” Imran Khan wrote in the letter, sent to both the president and the chief justice.

He stated that the ‘report’ in the cypher also contains some statements made by Lu in quotes. “The PTI government, as reflected in its last Cabinet meeting, was of the view the contents of the cipher clearly reflect a regime change conspiracy to remove Imran Khan from the office of Prime Minister. This is a serious matter, which led to the removal of my government through an engineered vote of no confidence (VNC) in the National Assembly with the shifting of the allegiance of allied parties of my government to the opposition and the purchase of loyalties of some members of PTI,” he further wrote.

This cypher, he added, is also the reason why the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly disallowed the vote of no confidence until such time as the issue of the cypher had been thoroughly investigated. “My plea before you is that given the grave nature of this threat to democracy in Pakistan through an externally-engineered regime change conspiracy, 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 to Pakistan’s democracy and sovereignty,” Imran Khan wrote to the president in an nearly same worded letter.

He added that the people of Pakistan need to have the truth laid before them as to who all in Pakistan were involved in this foreign regime change controversy. “Right now the silence from the SCP and the Presidency are creating a sense of betrayal and helplessness amongst the people of Pakistan. This is bringing them out to protest against what they see as a violation of their democratic right to vote into power a government for a term of five years through an engineered foreign regime change conspiracy,” Imran Khan further stated.

“The nation looks to its President to protect the people of Pakistan from such foreign conspiracies. I call upon you to live up to this trust,” he wrote in the letter addressed to President Alvi.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022