ISLAMABAD, July 19: The foreign office on Tuesday categorically rejected the claim made by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Shahbaz Gill as “entirely baseless” that the Cypher Communication received from the Embassy in Washington was ‘hidden’ from the then foreign minister or prime minister.
“Such a question simply does not arise. The Foreign Office operates on professional basis and it would be detrimental to cast aspersions on its working,” Asim Iftikhar, the spokesperson of Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
Gill, while talking to the media outside the Supreme Court earlier in the day, had claimed that the diplomatic cypher was with ‘powerful quarters’ and hidden from the then prime minister, Imran Khan and foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.
He said Qureshi on finding out about the cypher said, “Why it was not shared with me?”
Imran Khan claims that his government was ousted through a US-orchestrated regime change conspiracy because Washington was not happy with his independent foreign policy, especially his trip to Moscow at a time when Russia invaded Ukraine.
The PTI chairman, while referring to the diplomatic cypher from Pakistan’s ambassador to the US, is of the opinion that a senior US administration official had warned of “consequences” if no-confidence vote against him did not go through parliament.
The ousted PM has repeatedly come down hard on Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu who used “threatening language” in an official meeting with Pakistan’s envoy.
However, the Supreme Court in its last week’s detailed verdict observed that the former deputy speaker of the National Assembly in his ruling to dismiss the no-trust resolution against former prime minister Imran Khan failed to substantiate that regime was changed on account of a foreign country’s interference, emphasising the move was “jurisdictional excess” taken without any lawful authority.
A detailed judgement authored by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial said neither the deputy speaker’s ruling nor his detailed reasons claim that the cypher shows any member of the opposition parties (named or unnamed) to have interacted with a foreign state to bring the resolution of no-confidence (RNC) in order to oust the PM and his government.
The bona fides of the government’s defence of national security must be substantiated by evidence to justify the impugned ruling of April 3 given by the then deputy speaker, it stressed and added that a failure to do so will result in the impugned action of the government being examined under ordinary principles of judicial review.
On April 3, CJP Bandial had taken suo motu notice of the then NA’s deputy speaker Qasim Khan Suri’s decision to dismiss the no-trust move in a shock move citing Article 5 of the Constitution.-NNI
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