Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan’s mantra of an international conspiracy to oust him from office stands exposed as false following the foreign conspiracy cypher audio leak, one-time Pakistan ambassador Husain Haqqani to the United States said on Wednesday.
Haqqani made the comments while appearing in flagship Naya Daur TV show Khabar Say Agay. He said those well-versed in diplomacy knew Khan had been lying since day one. There was no truth in allegations of a regime change being undertaken, he said.
Haqqani said Khan had attempted to make a mountain out of a molehill. It now stood confirmed that this was a strategy of his and he had been lying all along, the former diplomat said.
He said a probe into the leaks must be carried out since it constituted a security breach. Haqqani said Khan never had an issue with conspiracies. He himself had conspired to induct turncoats in the PTI with the then ISI chief, he said. Khan, Haqqani said, was all for conspiracies as long as they furthered his interests.
Kamran Bokhari, a Pakistani researcher based in the United States, said cracking what purpose leaking the audios served was a question worth looking into. Time was not ripe to posit an opinion on the issue this early, he said.
Bokhari said Israeli spyware Pegasus had been used to snoop on those featured in the audios. ‘This may point towards either Indian or American involvement.’
He said while the audio leaks featured civilians of note, it would be interesting to see if recordings of senior military men also followed.
Flagship Naya Daur TV show Khabar Say Aagay streams Monday-Saturday at 9pm.
