Imran Khan Demands Sharif Gov't Release US Cable on 'Big Foreign Conspiracy' in Pakistan

A major controversy erupted in Pakistan after a series of confidential conversations between top government officials, including Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, surfaced on social media.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan has called on the Shehbaz Sharif government to release the diplomatic communication (cypher) to the public after an audio clip, allegedly featuring Khan and his former principal secretary Azam Khan, were leaked online.

The purported 106-second audio file titled "Story of the cypher conspiracy part 1," starts midway through a purported conversation between the two, in which they are discussing how to convert the US letter to the Pakistani ambassador in Washington into an official record.

Pakistan's former PM had previously accused Shehbaz Sharif of leaking the audio file to the public.

"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," Khan said.

When asked what he means by saying he would play with this cypher, Khan said that "he hasn't even played [on it] yet."

"Now [we will] play when they (govt) expose it," he concluded.

The PTI chief has for long presented the US cypher written in March, a month before Khan's ouster from power, as evidence of 'a foreign conspiracy' to install a government of Washington's choice in Islamabad.

In particular, Khan accused Donald Lu, US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, of conveying Pakistan's envoy in Washington on March 7 to remove his government.

"He (Lu) tells our ambassador in an official meeting in Washington that unless you get rid of Prime Minister Imran Khan in a vote of no-confidence, which hadn't been tabled as yet but he seems to know about it, Pakistan will suffer consequences," Khan had said in an interview with CNN in May.

Khan has been holding public rallies across Pakistan, pressurizing his successor, whom he labeled "imported," to conduct snap elections to bring political and economic stability.