PTI denounces Donald Lu's statement, demands reopening inquiry into cipher saga

As ciphergate came to the limelight, again, after Donald Lu’s testimony before a Congressional panel yesterday (Wednesday), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan termed the US assistant secretary of state’s statement on the diplomatic cable ‘controversy’ a lie, and demanded reopening an inquiry.

“I’ve held a detailed meeting with PTI founder Imran Khan today,” Barrister Gohar said while speaking to journalists outside Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail on Thursday.

The politico demands a “clarification statement” from former Pakistani ambassador to the US Muhammad Asad Majeed after Lu’s testimony in which the latter, once again, rejected former prime minister Khan’s allegations that the United States engineered his ouster from power by supporting the then opposition’s no-confidence motion in April 2022.

He went on to say that Majeed had also admitted holding a meeting with the US assistant secretary of state. Barrister Gohar claimed that Pakistan had conveyed a strong demarche to the US over the former envoy’s recommendations who confirmed the veracity of the aforementioned diplomatic cable.

The PTI chief found contradictions in Lu’s statement in which he rejected the cipher’s content, and his meeting with Majeed and the past happenings in Pakistan. On the other hand, the former Pakistani diplomat had submitted copy of the diplomatic cable besides confirming the “said meeting”.

However, Gohar clarified that Khan’s sister Aleema Khan sought lodging a case against the US high-up which was a “family decision”.

To a question, the PTI chairman who took charge of the former ruling party in absence of incarcerated Khan ruled out impression of any “deal” if the party founder comes out of prison in the coming days.

The statements delivered by Lu before a Congressional panel on Wednesday (yesterday) opened discussions over the cipher saga, again, in which he termed Khan’s “conspiracy theory” a “lie”, and “complete falsehood”

He claimed that the diplomatic cable did not accuse the US government or him personally of taking steps against the former premier.

The cipher controversy first emerged on March 27, 2022, when Khan less than a month before his ouster in April 2022 while addressing a public rally waved a letter before the crowd, claiming that it was a cipher from a for