Factuality of ‘missing’ Azam Khan’s statement yet to be determined: PTI

Raising questions over the factuality of a statement attributed to ex-prime minister Imran Khan's then-principal secretary Azam Khan, who went missing last month, on US cypher conspiracy, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Wednesday dubbed it a “set of contradictions” and “unverified”. 

As per reports circulating on mainstream and social media, the former bureaucrat has "recorded" a statement, terming the US cypher a "conspiracy" used by the deposed premier to "manipulate for creating a narrative against establishment and opposition".

Reacting to his recent statement, a spokesperson of the PTI said that the former bureaucrat is still missing, adding that his statement's factuality is yet to be determined.

The Islamabad Capital Territory Police is still unable to trace Azam, the spokesperson added.

Recording a statement of a missing person under section 164 of CrPC before a magistrate is unimaginable, the PTI spokesperson said, quoting legal experts.

Disclosing the content of a missing person’s statement recorded under section 164 of CrPC is also a crime, the former ruling party added.

The PTI also asked the authorities to inform them that the former bureaucrat is in whose custody and in which case.

Earlier today, the ousted prime minister, who was removed from office through a no-confidence vote last year in April, termed Azam an "honest man" and said he would not accept the statement until he heard the bureaucrat say it himself.

On June 12, the former principal secretary went out of his house in the evening but did not return. The police had registered a case under the charges of "abduction" at the Kohsar police station.

The ex-principal secretary made headlines last year when audio leaks purportedly featuring the former prime minister, his party leaders and him emerged. In one of the audio leaks, the former premier allegedly tells his then-principal secretary to "play" with the US cypher.

Imran allegedly told Azam in the audio — the date of which cannot be ascertained at the moment — that "let's just play" with the cypher and not mention America's name.

In response, Azam tells Imran a scheme of how to use the cypher to forward the PTI's political agenda — and in that, he also suggests using Foreign Secretary Sohail Mahmood so the matter can be highlighted at a "bureaucratic level".

Another purported audio clip of the PTI chairman and his team surfaced, just days after a sound bite of the deposed prime minister allegedly telling his then-principal secretary to "play" with the US cypher had come to the fore.

The audio, purportedly featured Imran, Azam, Asad Umar and Shah Mahmood Qureshi.

'Cypher gate' a premeditated conspiracy

Azam, who has been "missing" since last month, has recorded his statement under CrPC 164 before a magistrate, said well-placed sources, with no information on his whereabouts.

Imran alleged on March 27, 2022, that Washington orchestrated a plan to remove him from office — and brandished the cypher at a public rally to back his claims. The US has time and again denied such allegations, terming them "categorically false".

In his confession, Azam claimed that when he shared the cypher with Imran, the former premier was "euphoric" and termed the language as a "US blunder".

The ex-prime minister then said, according to Azam, that the cable could be used for "creating a narrative against establishment and opposition".

The confession mentions that Imran also told Azam that the cypher could be used to divert the public's attention towards "foreign involvement" in the opposition's no-confidence motion.

Azam's confession mentions that Imran told him he would display the cypher in front of the public and "twist the narrative that a foreign conspiracy is being hatched in collusion with local partners and play [the] victim card".

When Azam, according to the sources, told Imran that the cypher was a secret document and its content could not be disclosed before the public, the then-premier suggested a formal meeting with then-foreign minister Qureshi and then-foreign secretary Sohail Mahmood "where they can read the cypher from the foreign ministry's copy (as Imran Khan's original copy was still lost) and from minutes of the meeting further decision can be made".

The confession also mentioned that the then-premier decided to call special meetings of the cabinet and the National Security Division to discuss the cypher and note down the minutes of the meetings.

However, he mentioned that till the time he was Imran's principal secretary, the cypher was not returned to the Prime Minister's Office as Imran had lost the original document.

Cable gate

The controversy first emerged on March 27, 2022, when Imran — less than a month before his ouster — brandished a letter, claiming that it was a cypher from a foreign nation, which mentioned that his government should be removed from power.

He did not reveal the contents of the letter nor mention the name of the nation that had sent it. But a few days later, he named the United States and said that Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Affairs Donald Lu had sought his removal.

The cypher was about former Pakistan ambassador to the US Asad Majeed's meeting with Lu.

The former prime minister, claiming that he was reading contents from the cypher, said that "all will be forgiven for Pakistan if Imran Khan is removed from power".

Then on March 31, the National Security Committee (NSC) took up the matter and decided to issue a "strong demarche" to the country for its "blatant interference in the internal affairs of Pakistan".

Later, after his removal, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif convened a meeting of the NSC, which came to the conclusion that it had found no evidence of a foreign conspiracy in the cypher.

In the two audio leaks that took the internet by storm and shocked the public after these events, the former prime minister, then-federal minister Asad Umar, and then-principle secretary Azam could allegedly be heard discussing the US cypher and how to use it in their interest.

On September 30, the federal cabinet took notice of the matter and constituted a committee to probe the contents of the audio leaks.

In October, the cabinet gave the green signal to initiate action against the former prime minister and handed over the case to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

Once the FIA was given the task to probe the matter, it summoned Imran, Umar, and other leaders of the party, but the PTI chief challenged the summons and secured a stay order from the court.

This Tuesday (July 18), the Lahore High Court recalled the stay order against the call-up notice to Imran by the FIA.