DAG WEB DESK A US news channel has released details of a diplomatic “cipher” or secret cable that suggests the US administration sought to oust former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan from power last year.
Khan was removed from power in April 2022 after losing a vote of no confidence in parliament. He claimed he knew about “encryption” while in office, which he said showed the US was hatching a plot to impeach him with the help of his political opponents and the Pakistani military.
He later reversed course and said he wanted good relations with the United States, but continued to accuse his successor, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and the military of orchestrating his overthrow.
Khan is currently serving a three-year sentence and has been banned from politics for five years after being convicted on corruption charges by a court in the capital Islamabad last week. He denies the allegations and says the action against him is aimed at preventing him from running in elections expected later this year.
On Wednesday, The Intercept news website published purported details of a conversation between Pakistan’s then-ambassador to the US, Asad Majeed, and Donald Lu, the Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, on March 7 last year.
The conversation, according to the report, took place less than two weeks after Khan visited Moscow on February 24, the day Russia invaded Ukraine.
