Is There ‘Foreign Conspiracy’ Against Imran Khan And What Secret Letter Is Pakistan PM Talking About

Facing a no-confidence motion against him, Imran Khan has turned to conspiracy theories to explain the challenge to his rule and has gone on national television to claim the opposition is in cahoots with a foreign government to overthrow him.

New Delhi: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s political survival hangs on a thread as he faced a no-confidence vote from the opposition. Besieged by the opposition and abandoned by coalition partners, Imran Khan faces the greatest challenge so far in his political career. On Thursday, Pakistan’s National Assembly session adjourned abruptly till Sunday after opposition lawmakers demanded an immediate vote on a no-confidence motion against Imran Khan who has effectively lost majority in the lower house.

Facing a no-confidence motion against him, Imran Khan has turned to conspiracy theories to explain the challenge to his rule and has gone on national television to claim the opposition is in cahoots with a foreign government to overthrow him.

Imran Khan shares some content of ‘foreign conspiracy’ letter

Imran Khan shared some content of a letter – purportedly showing evidence of a foreign conspiracy to oust his government – with his cabinet members and a selected group of journalists. Imran Khan waved the purported letter at a public rally on March 27 and claimed that a foreign conspiracy was afoot to remove him from power, touting the opposition’s no-confidence move against him as a testimony of foreign funded move to topple his government.

Several Opposition leaders had asked Imran Khan to divulge the details of the letter while denouncing it as an effort to divert pressure and hold on to power.

“Only the content was revealed as the copy of the letter cannot be given. They have also shown it in the cabinet meeting. It is present with the military leadership. Today, all the details were shared with the media through an official in different languages. What they shared with us is that this letter is a conversation between Pakistani officials and officials of another country,” Imran Riaz Khan, one of the senior Pakistani journalists with whom the content of the letter was shared, told Samaa News, according to a report in the Dawn.

“According to my understanding, that country is America but the government did not name the country. They did not tell the number of officials or the location of the meeting. They said that Europe and the US are not happy with Pakistan’s stance on Russia and Ukraine,” Imran Riaz Khan said.

Did Imran Khan’s Russia visit have impact

Kashif Abbasi, another journalist who was present at the meeting where Imran Khan shared content of the letter, said it was clearly stated in the letter that the concerned country was “unhappy” with the policies of Pakistan. In the letter, Imran Khan’s visit to Russia on the day Moscow ordered war in Ukraine has been mentioned.

“The Russia tour was clearly mentioned and it was said that it (the visit) was the prime minister’s individual decision,” Abbasi said.

Pakistan PM Imran Khan met President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin on February 24, the day the Russian leader ordered a “special military operation” against Ukraine. Khan also became the first Pakistani premier to visit Russia in 23 years after former premier Nawaz Sharif travelled to Moscow in 1999.

Earlier this month, Pakistan had abstained from voting in United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution calling on Russia to stop the war, and urged that the conflict be resolved through dialogue and diplomacy.

According to a Dawn report, a Pakistani envoy was conveyed that the future trajectory of relations between the two countries was contingent upon the fate of the no-confidence motion that the Opposition parties were then planning to bring against Khan.

What US said on Imran Khan’s ‘foreign conspiracy’ remark

Responding to ‘foreign conspiracy’ remark by Imran Khan, the US asserted that it did not send any letter to Pakistan on the current political situation in the country as it sought to refute allegations of America’s involvement in the no-confidence motion.

The US State Department on Wednesday stated that no US government agency or official had sent a letter to Pakistan on the current political situation in the country, according to a media report, news agency PTI reported.

“There is no truth to these allegations,” a State Department spokesperson said while responding to questions from Dawn about the alleged letter and US involvement in the no-confidence motion against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government.

(With inputs from Agencies)