ISLAMABAD: In a continuing sequence of controversial audio leaks involving high-profile names in Pakistan, sound bites of former PM Imran Khan and his then principal secretary Azam Khan purportedly discussing how to “play” the alleged “foreign conspiracy” against him emerged Wednesday amid a National Security Committee meet to discuss a tape featuring incumbent PM Shehbaz Sharif.
“Let’s play with this. We won’t have to take any country’s name; just play with this,” a voice believed to be that of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chief is heard in the leaked clip.
The bureaucrat then tells Imran how to use the conspiracy card to forward the party’s political agenda, suggesting that he rope in foreign secretary Sohail Mahmood so that the issue could be highlighted at a “bureaucratic level”.
“Let’s hold a meeting with Shah Mahmood Qureshi (then foreign minister in Imran’s government) and the foreign secretary. Qureshi will read out that letter, and whatever he reads out will be converted into a copy. I will then make minutes out of it and say the foreign secretary has prepared this,” a man said to be Azam Khan advises the ex-PM.
Imran purportedly replies, “The analysis will have to be conducted and converted into minutes just as we want so that it becomes part of the official record…Let’s do this tomorrow only.”
As the latest audio leak went viral, Imran accused PM Shehbaz and his acolytes of being behind it. “Well done on leaking it. I would say the cypher should get leaked too… and so everyone knows what a big foreign conspiracy was made,” he said.
“I haven’t even played on it yet. Now we will play when they expose it.”
Shehbaz himself is under pressure over a purportedly leaked transcript of a chat with a federal secretary in which he allegedly seeks favours for a son-in-law of Maryam Nawaz, ex-PM Nawaz Sharif’s daughter.
“Let’s play with this. We won’t have to take any country’s name; just play with this,” a voice believed to be that of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chief is heard in the leaked clip.
The bureaucrat then tells Imran how to use the conspiracy card to forward the party’s political agenda, suggesting that he rope in foreign secretary Sohail Mahmood so that the issue could be highlighted at a “bureaucratic level”.
“Let’s hold a meeting with Shah Mahmood Qureshi (then foreign minister in Imran’s government) and the foreign secretary. Qureshi will read out that letter, and whatever he reads out will be converted into a copy. I will then make minutes out of it and say the foreign secretary has prepared this,” a man said to be Azam Khan advises the ex-PM.
Imran purportedly replies, “The analysis will have to be conducted and converted into minutes just as we want so that it becomes part of the official record…Let’s do this tomorrow only.”
As the latest audio leak went viral, Imran accused PM Shehbaz and his acolytes of being behind it. “Well done on leaking it. I would say the cypher should get leaked too… and so everyone knows what a big foreign conspiracy was made,” he said.
“I haven’t even played on it yet. Now we will play when they expose it.”
Shehbaz himself is under pressure over a purportedly leaked transcript of a chat with a federal secretary in which he allegedly seeks favours for a son-in-law of Maryam Nawaz, ex-PM Nawaz Sharif’s daughter.
