The federal cabinet has issued a formal approval to pursue legal action against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan and his party leaders regarding the ‘cipher’ audio leaks, a private TV channel reported on Sunday.
The cabinet has formally given the go-ahead to hold an inquiry into the audio leaks purportedly featuring PTI Chairman Imran Khan and his party leaders. On Friday, the cabinet suggested that legal action could be taken after a steady stream of audio recordings surfaced, most recently of informal conversations allegedly between Imran and his aides – Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Asad Umar and his former principal secretary Azam Khan – purportedly discussing the cypher that the PTI chief has for long presented as evidence of a “foreign conspiracy” to oust him from office. According to Cabinet Division documents dated October 1, the Friday meeting had constituted a sub-committee “to deliberate and recommend actions regarding the conversation of the former Prime Minister Imran Khan, his political associates and the then secretary to the PM, available on the internet regarding the cypher message received from Parep Washington (Cypher No. 1-0678 dated March 7, 2022)”. “Therefore, the apex investigation agency (FIA) may be directed to inquire into the matter by constituting a team of senior officers, which may co-opt officers/officials from other intelligence agencies for the purpose, and to proceed further against the perpetrators in accordance with the law,” the memo said. The cabinet also sought the implementation report on its suggestions “immediately”.
In a handout issued after the Friday huddle, it was revealed that a copy of the cypher had gone “missing” from the Prime Minister House records, and the cabinet had subsequently formed a special committee which would determine the legal action to be taken against all those involved, including the ex-premier, ex-principal secretary to prime minister Azam Khan and senior ministers. “The cabinet committee will consist of the representatives of the coalition parties in the government, along with ministers,” the handout issued had said. The handout had declared that the “theft of diplomatic cypher records is an unforgivable crime” and violation of the Official Secrets Act, 1923. The cabinet was told that the audios purportedly featuring Imran and his aides exposed “the criminal conspiracy of the former government”, while the cypher was given “fictitious meanings for political mileage and subsequently it was stolen after fraud, forgery, fabrication.”
