ISLAMABAD: Former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s then Principal Secretary Azam Khan has “recorded” a statement, in which the American cypher was manipulated by the former Prime Minister to “create a narrative against the establishment and the opposition”. “Conspiracy” used for Wednesday.
Azam, who had been “missing” since last month, recorded his statement under CrPC 164 before a magistrate, sources said, adding that there was no information about his whereabouts.
Khan, who was ousted by a parliamentary vote in April last year, alleged on March 27, 2022, that Washington had planned to remove him from office – and brandished a cypher at a public rally to support his claims.
In his confessional statement, Azam claimed that the former prime minister was “cheerful” when he shared the cypher with Imran and called the language “an American mistake”.
The former prime minister then said, according to Azam, that the cable could be used to “create a narrative against the establishment and the opposition”.
Khan also told Azam that the cypher could be used to divert public attention to “foreign involvement” in the opposition’s no-confidence motion, the affidavit said.
Azam’s confessional statement states that Imran told him that he would show the cypher to the public and “distort the narrative that there was a foreign conspiracy with local partners and that the victim card is being played”.
According to sources, when Azam told Imran Khan that the cypher was a secret document and its contents could not be disclosed to the public, the then Prime Minister formally communicated with the then Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and the then Foreign Secretary. Suggested meeting. Sohail Mehmood “where he could read the cypher from the Foreign Ministry copy (as Imran Khan’s original copy was still missing) and further decide from the minutes of the meeting”.
The affidavit states that the then Prime Minister decided to call a special meeting of the Cabinet and the National Security Division to discuss the cypher and note the minutes of the meetings.
However, he mentioned that while he was Imran’s principal secretary, the cypher was not returned to the Prime Minister’s Office because Imran had lost the original document.
