He waved a doc at a rally final 12 months saying it was proof of overseas conspiracy to oust him as prime minister
By:
Chandrashekar Bhat
JAILED former prime minister Imran Khan admitted “misplacing” a confidential diplomatic cable as he was interrogated by Pakistan’s high investigative company.
Khan, 70, sentenced to a three-year jail time period earlier this month in a corruption case, was grilled on the Attock jail for wrongful use of the categorised doc, in line with media reviews on Sunday (27).
The cable was the doc Khan had for lengthy talked about as proof of a US-backed conspiracy to take away him because the prime minister final 12 months.
He had waved a doc at a rally days earlier than his ouster as prime minister in April 2022, saying it was proof of overseas conspiracy.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman’s interrogation comes days after he was booked below the Official Secrets and techniques Act for making public the content material of a confidential diplomatic cable from the nation’s embassy within the US.
The counter-terrorism wing (CTW) of the Federal Investigation Company (FIA) on Saturday (26) visited the previous prime minister within the jail, media reviews stated.
Through the interrogation, Khan admitted to dropping the cypher, saying he couldn’t recall the place he saved it, The Information newspaper reported.
Khan additionally denied that the paper he waved at a public gathering final 12 months was the diplomatic cable.
“The paper I gestured within the public had been cupboard assembly minutes and never cypher,” the paper quoted Khan as saying.
The investigation company had registered the case in opposition to Khan and PTI vice-chairman and former overseas minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, after ascertaining their involvement in misusing the cypher and its misplacement following a probe.
The purported cypher contained an account of a gathering between US State Division officers, together with assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu after which Pakistani envoy Asad Majeed Khan.
The cricketer-turned-politician got here below elevated scrutiny following the publication of a purported copy of the key cable by the US media outlet The Intercept, with many within the earlier authorities led by Shehbaz Sharif pointing fingers on the PTI chief for being the supply of the leak.
Former inside minister Rana Sanaullah has stated that if Khan had certainly misplaced the copy of the cypher offered to him, it might represent a criminal offense below the Official Secrets and techniques Act.
Citing the cypher, The Intercept, in a report revealed earlier this month, stated, “The US State Division inspired the Pakistani authorities in a March 7, 2022, assembly to take away Imran Khan as prime minister over his neutrality on the Russian invasion of Ukraine.”
The publication, nonetheless, additionally said that it made in depth efforts to authenticate the doc, however “given the safety local weather in Pakistan, unbiased affirmation from sources within the Pakistani authorities was not potential”.
The US State Division had stated it couldn’t confirm the authenticity of the doc.
The cypher case in opposition to Khan turned critical after his principal secretary said earlier than a Justice of the Peace and the FIA that the previous prime minister had used the US cypher for his political features’ and to avert a no-confidence vote in opposition to him final 12 months.
On August 5, Khan was arrested and despatched to Attock Jail after a trial courtroom discovered him responsible within the Toshakhana corruption case.
Dozens of instances had been launched in opposition to Khan after his elimination from workplace final 12 months.
(PTI)
