ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi on Tuesday said he would forward a letter of former prime minister Imran Khan to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umer Ata Bandial, seeking formation of a judicial commission by the latter to probe the alleged government change conspiracy.
The president, in reply to Imran Khan’s letter, informed him that he would request CJP Bandial "to constitute an empowered judicial commission for conducting open hearings in this regard". Imran Khan had earlier written a letter to President Alvi and CJP Bandial, requesting a public inquiry and the formation of a judicial commission to probe the "threat letter" which, he claimed, was an evidence of a "conspiracy" to topple his government.
The president called for a thorough probe into the alleged government change conspiracy by recording circumstantial evidence to reach a logical conclusion and provide clarity to the people of Pakistan.
He wrote that he has read a copy of the cipher sent by the then ambassador of Pakistan to the United States, containing an official summary of a meeting held at the Pakistan Embassy with Donald Lu, US assistant secretary of state, along with another US official and diplomats of the Pakistani Mission. He added that the report in the cipher included some statements made by Mr Lu in quotes, specifically mentioning a no-confidence motion against the prime minister, and also mentioned forgiveness if it succeeds, and dire consequences if the said motion fails.
President Alvi referred to two meetings of the National Security Committee that had endorsed that the statements of Mr Lu amounted to unacceptable and blatant interference in the internal affairs of Pakistan and the government of Pakistan has rightly issued a demarche. He underscored that threats could be both covert and overt, and in this particular case, it was clearly communicated in an undiplomatic language. He noted that the former prime minister had raised serious issues of possible covert reactions and ramifications of the threat.
In his letter, the president continued that he believes that for a sovereign nation like Pakistan and its people whose dignity has been deeply hurt, there is a need to carry out an in-depth analysis and investigation to inquire into the possible conspiracy. The president highlighted that in the history of Pakistan, people have believed in "many obvious, but unfortunately unproven conspiracies". In this regard, he cited the examples of the murder of the first prime minister of Pakistan Liaquat Ali Khan in Rawalpindi, the Agartala Conspiracy case, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s plane crash, the Ojheri disaster, the Abbottabad Conspiracy case and several other cases that remained inconclusive.
The president said sometimes top-secret archives that were declassified after decades or revelations by informed people or documents that had emerged in leaks did provide a smoking gun kind of link to events and conspiracies on the world stage. He regretted that it happened much later, after the destinies of those countries had been significantly damaged by such illegal interventions.
