PESHAWAR: PTI chairman Imran Khan on Friday asked the “neutrals” — the term he uses for the military establishment — who was responsible for the security breach at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). Imran’s statement comes after a steady stream of audio recordings surfaced of late, of allegedly candid conversations never meant to be heard by the public, of government figures in the Prime Minister’s Office.
The most recent audios purportedly feature conversations between the PTI chief and his former ministers and principal secretary about a cypher that he has for long presented as evidence of a “foreign conspiracy” to oust him from office.
Last week, a slew of audio recordings of conversations between key government figures — including Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz and some members of the federal cabinet — were released as well raising an all-our national security concern.
“I ask them [neutrals] that the audio leaks of the Prime Minister Office if the security of the Prime Minister Office has been breached this means that our enemies have our sensitive information,” Imran said in a speech at Edwardes College in Peshawar yesterday. “Who is responsible for it?”
“I ask the protectors today if robbers are looting a house, can the guards say that they are neutral? What will the residents say? That the house is being looted but the guards say they are neutral,” Imran said, claiming that Pakistan, too, was being “looted” today.
He went on that if the “neutrals” were only responsible for cracking down on social media users, YouTubers, and television channels, then “who will protect the interests of the country”.
The PTI chief then addressed his supporters and reiterated that people who called themselves apolitical were, “in fact, animals”. “More than 2,000 years ago Aristotle said that if there is injustice and tyranny in a society, then everyone should stand up against it and be political.”
Imran said that if “we say we are apolitical, then we will be responsible for the injustices in the society”. Subsequently, the PTI chief said that he was preparing the nation for his call against the “imported and corrupt government”, saying that he would set out against them even if he had to do it alone.
“If I have no fear I am not afraid of going to jail or losing my life then the nation should also not be scared. “I am preparing my nation today that I will under no circumstances accept these looters. So wait for my call and when I will give the call, there will be no going back,” Imran added.
The controversy surrounding the no-confidence motion against the former premier Imran Khan took a dramatic turn when the embattled PM brandished a letter at a rally on March 27 — days before his ouster — claiming it contained evidence of a “foreign conspiracy” hatched to topple his government.
Imran had kept mum about the contents of the letter when he first unveiled it but he spilled the beans days later by naming the United States when the exit of his government appeared imminent.
Imran’s allegation that the US spearheaded his exit from power was based on a cypher received from Pakistan’s Ambassador to the US, Asad Majeed, in which the envoy had reported about a meeting with Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Affairs Donald Lu. –Agencies
