Finance Minister Ishaq Dar Saturday revealed that Principal Secretary Azam Khan has admitted that he gave the diplomatic cipher to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan — which had been “stolen” from the records of the Prime Minister’s House.
Dar said it was now “established” through the audio leaks that the former Opposition — now the government — was not responsible for any conspiracy, but rather the PTI was. “We will be failing in national duty and oath if we don’t take appropriate action,” he added.
The finance minister said the matter was not something that could be ignored, adding that “whoever did this is not pardonable”.
“We will be betraying the Constitution if we don’t take it to the logical conclusion. So the decision is we will take the matter forward in light of the law and Constitution,” he stressed.
Maintaining that Imran Khan was solely responsible for the travesty he said that if we do not take action to bring this matter to its logical conclusion, then it would be another breach of the Constitution.
He further revealed that the cabinet has inspected all aspects in this regard in detail. “The minutes that were created regarding the diplomatic cipher are present; however, the original document is missing,” Dar added.
“This proves that conspiracy was not hatched by the incumbent coalition government instead the PTI was behind this,” he said, adding that a meeting of the National Security Committee has also been held in this regard.
Playing the purported audio leak of the former prime minister, Dar said: “We will betray our constitution if we do not take it to its logical end.
“The mess created in four years could not be cleaned in four to five months; however, our efforts will be concentrated on stopping the destruction, and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s team is working to provide relief to the masses,” he concluded.
In Lahore, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Maryam Nawaz said: “You heard that the cipher went missing from Prime Minister House. I think there should be a raid on Bani Gala from where you will find out where the cipher copy went and what the real minutes, letter, and communique were,” she stated in a press conference.
“Since day one I knew that he [Khan] was lying as he is the biggest liar of this century,” she claimed, adding that this wasn’t just conspiracy but this was also “tampering”.
Accusing the former prime minister of forging sensitive official documents, she said that Khan conspired against the foreign policy of Pakistan.
“PM Shehbaz told me that no country is ready to write a letter to Pakistan because of this fitna Khan [Imran Khan],” Maryam said, adding that other countries are now afraid of communicating with Pakistan.
The PML-N vice president further added that the audio leaks are enough to indict Khan for his wrongdoings.
“You can look at Supreme Court’s verdict, Khan even violated the order of the apex court while leaving his office,” she mentioned, adding that the highest court of the country has given its ruling against the former premier.
“The nation has been held hostage by this evil mind for the last four years,” she asserted.
Meanwhile, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said the issue would be raised in parliament and expressed the hope that the body would decide to file an Article 6 reference against Imran.
