Roving Periscope: US rejects Imran’s ‘conspiracy theory’ to oust him
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Concerned that Imran Khan might have ruptured America’s relationship with Pakistan and that China might increase its influence in Islamabad, the US late on Friday bluntly rejected the embattled PM’s allegations of a plot to overthrow his government.
Khan has been reiterating his allegations for the last couple of weeks. Even a day before the National Assembly was to take up the vote of no-confidence against him, the Pakistani PM reiterated the allegations. In an address to the nation, he spoke about a “foreign conspiracy”, plotted in Washington, to overthrow his government with the help of the Opposition parties.
The US said there is “absolutely no truth” to these claims.
Khan has been claiming that the Opposition’s no-confidence motion against him resulted from a foreign conspiracy because of his ‘independent’ foreign policy and that funds were being channeled from abroad to oust him from power.
On Friday evening, Imran Khan, 69, once again repeated his allegations that a senior US diplomat threatened regime change in Pakistan.
He also named Donald Lu, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs in the Department of State, as the US diplomat involved in the foreign conspiracy to topple his government. Lu, born in the US, is of Chinese heritage. As a diplomat, he served several countries, including Pakistan.
Responding to a question on Khan’s renewed allegations of the US encouraging the no-confidence vote against his government, the Department of State’s Deputy Spokesperson Jalina Porter, in a press conference on Friday, said, “Let me just say very bluntly there is absolutely no truth to these allegations.”
“Of course, we continue to follow these developments, and we respect and support Pakistan’s constitutional process and rule of law. But again, these allegations are absolutely not true,” she said.
Friday’s rebuttal was the third time the US Department of State has publicly commented on Khan’s allegations.
Earlier, Pakistan’s newspaper Dawn reported that the Department of State had dismissed the allegation when it initially broke in late March.
