Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: PTI Chairman Imran Khan said Wednesday that it was a “good thing” that the government allegedly leaked an audio about the US cipher, saying he thinks the cypher itself should be leaked to the public.
Imran Khan accused Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and co of leaking the latest audio. “Well done on leaking it. I would say the cipher should get leaked too and so everyone knows what a big foreign conspiracy was made,” he said. “I haven’t even played [on it] yet. Now [we will] play when they expose it,” he concluded.
In a major development, a sound bite of former prime minister Imran Khan speaking about the US cipher — what he time and again has alleged was a “threat” letter to Pakistan — surfaced earlier in the day after multiple audio leaks of top government officials.
The PTI was quick to defend the leaked conversation and senior party leader, Fawad Chaudhry was the first to react. “The new leaks only confirm the attempt to hide the US cable from the [then] prime minister [Imran Khan],” Fawad wrote on Twitter, minutes after the audio surfaced. While speaking to the media later, Fawad said that this is the first case of an audio leak from PM House.
“The Supreme Court must take notice and order investigations,” he said. The politician said that facts about the audio leaks will be revealed when they are probed. Fawad said that there is no solution to ensure cyber security as any hacker can hack. He further stated that he doubts that Indian hackers are behind the leaks.
Meanwhile, PTI leader Hammad Azhar said when Imran Khan was the prime minister, his government was removed following the “exact same script as was given in the cypher”. “Let that sink in,” he said, adding, “I think the cypher should be released now and the people of Pakistan should decide whether it was a conspiracy or even more than that.”
Imran Khan’s then special assistant for overseas Pakistanis and human resource development, Zulfi Bukhari also joined league and said that the leaked audio “further strengthens” PTI’s stance. He said that the audio is “completely in agreement” with the PTI’s narrative. “[The] cipher was hidden from the PM,” he tweeted.
“Best possibility was to bring into bureaucratic records-everything mentioned in cipher & written by ambassador. Great job putting up this audio, further strengthens our stance,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, PTI leader Ali Zaidi said that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has made another violation by letting “an official of the PM House release a voice note”, recorded inside the PM House. He requested the apex court to probe into the “foreign-funded regime change”.
“Investigations into the foreign-funded regime change would expose the ones who have actually looted Pakistan, who have harmed Pakistan and who is the foreign agent in this country,” Zaidi said in a video statement released by PTI.
