Sherry Rehman assails PTI over cipher narrative after Donald Lu's statement

Pakistan People's Party Senator Sherry Rehman has said that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's (PTI) narrative about cipher has proved false after US Assistant Secretary of State Donald Lu's statement in Foreign Affairs Committee of the US Congress.
According to the 24News HD TV channel, Senator Sherry in her statement issued in Islamabad on Thursday said Donald Lu in the Foreign Affairs Committee of the US Congress has clearly called the cipher statement a lie.
Sherry Rehman said that now it has been formally cleared that the PTI had used US cipher's narrative falsly to protect its political objectives in the country.
The PPP senator said that PTI founder Imran Khan and his associates had already been heard planning to play politics on cipher in the audio leak some time ago.
Senator Sherry Rehman added that Imran Khan's principal secretary Azam Khan has also given a detailed explanation in the cipher case hearing.
She said a diplomatic document was distorted for political and personal interests, adding that the false cipher narrative of PTI will be remembered as the worst example of putting domestic and foreign interests at stake for achieving their petty political goals.

US cipher Issue and Donald Lu

Lu is the diplomat whose supposed warning to former Pakistan Ambassador to the US Asad Majeed was the subject of a cipher sent by the envoy to Islamabad.
It was the same document [cipher] that the PTI founder used to allege a US conspiracy to oust his government in 2022. Imran is currently on trial for mishandling the same confidential document.

Donald Lu's statement in US Congress Committee

Yesterday, US Assistant Secretary of State Donald Lu termed the allegations against him by former prime minister Imran Khan as a “conspiracy theory, lie and complete falsehood”.
Testifying before the subcommittee of the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs, at a hearing titled ‘Pakistan After the Elections: Examining the Future of Democracy in Pakistan and the US-Pakistan Relationship’, Lu was questioned about the allegations and his assessment of them.
In response, Lu said: “I want to be very clear on this point. These allegations — this conspiracy theory — is a lie. It is a complete falsehood. I have reviewed the press reporting related to this, what is called the cipher in Pakistan, the alleged leaked diplomatic cable from the embassy here.
“It is not accurate. At no point does it accuse the US government or me personally of taking steps against Imran Khan. And thirdly, the other person in the meeting, the then-ambassador of Pakistan to the US, has testified to his own government that there was no conspiracy.”
During Lu’s response, he was heckled by a person attending the proceedings who called him a “liar” while chants of “Free Imran Khan” were also heard.
Lu said that the US respected Pakistan’s sovereignty and the principle of the Pakistani nation choosing its own leaders through a democratic principle. The conclusion of his response was met by a loud commotion of hecklers against his remarks, who dubbed him a “liar”.
In his address to the Congress hearing, Lu reiterated the US State Department’s observations regarding the general elections and elaborated on them.

Reporter: Rozina Ali