Former prime minister Imran Khan’s principal secretary Azam Khan has admitted that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman had staged the cypher drama to save his government during no-confidence motion and malign the then Opposition, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Wednesday.

Recording a confessional statement before a magistrate under Section 164, Azam Khan accused the former prime minister of using US cypher to create a false narrative against the establishment, the then Opposition and the US.

Azam Khan said the PTI chief had under a well-thought-out conspiracy concocted the cypher narrative which was a fabricated and baseless scheme for political purposes.

Azam Khan further stated that all cabinet members were involved in the cypher matter and everyone was informed about how cypher could be used. Cypher had no link to the truth as it was solely utilized for political purposes and created as a drama plan, he added.

According to Azam Khan’s statement, the PTI chairman had then said: “I will change cypher’s narrative by misrepresenting it to the public.”

Azam Khan further claimed that the PTI chief took the cypher from him on March 9 which later he lost. Despite objections, the PTI chairman used the secret memorandum for personal gain, he added.

During his tenure in the PTI government, Azam Khan served as the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Imran Khan and was considered very close to him.

In a confessional statement recorded before a magistrate, Azam Khan, who was not seen in public during the last one month, claimed that when he shared the cypher with Imran, the former premier was euphoric and termed the language a US blunder. The PTI chief then said the cable could be used for "creating a narrative against establishment and opposition, Azam added. 

The confession mentions that Khan 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 was being hatched in collusion with local partners and play the victim card.

When Azam told Imran Khan that the cypher was a secret document and its content could not be disclosed before the public, he suggested a formal meeting with then-FM Shah Mehmood Qureshi and foreign secretary Sohail Mahmood where they can read the cypher from the foreign ministry's copy, Azam said.

The confession mentioned that Imran then 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.

The cypher controversy first emerged on March 27, 2022, when Imran had 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-principal 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 FIA was given the task to probe the matter, it summoned Khan, 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 Khan by the FIA.