Federal Cabinet approves legal action against Imran Khan, his political associates & Azam Khan over ‘cipher’ audios
ISLAMABAD, Oct 02 (SABAH): The federal cabinet has approved to hold investigation and legal action into recent audio leaks of
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan regarding diplomatic cipher.
According to the details, the federal cabinet approved the recommendations of a Cabinet Committee through circulation which was formed to inquire the matter.
The cabinet committee recommended that legal action is necessary as it is a matter of national security.
It recommended forming a committee of senior official of Federal Investigation Agency to investigate the matter. The FIA may also include officers and personnel from intelligence agencies in the team.
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 Muhammad Azam Khan, 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 the two audio leaks that took the internet by storm and shocked the public across the country, former prime minister Imran Khan, Asad Umar, and then-principle secretary Azam Khan could allegedly be heard discussing the US cypher and how to use it in their interest.
In the first audio that was leaked on Wednesday, the PTI chairman was reportedly talking to Azam and directing him to play with the cypher. Azam was then heard advising Imran to hold a meeting with Qureshi and foreign secretary Sohail Mehmood to bring this on record by faking the minutes of the meeting.
Taking notice of the leaks, the federal cabinet formed a committee over the audios on September 30. The committee recommended legal action over the audio leaks purportedly featuring Imran Khan, Azam Khan and others on October 1. Meanwhile, a summary comprising the recommendations of the body was presented before the cabinet.
“This is a matter of national security, which has serious implications for national interests and a legal action in this regard is vital,” recommended the cabinet committee.
The federal cabinet approved the summary through circulation. FIA will be given the task to probe into the US cypher and the audios allegedly featuring Imran Khan and others.
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.”
Transcript of the second leaked audio:
Imran Khan: Shah jee [Shah Mahmood Qureshi], we three [Imran Khan, Azam Khan and you] have to hold a meeting tomorrow, along with the foreign secretary [Sohail Mahmood]. [In the meeting], we will ask him to just sit quietly and write the minutes of the meeting as is. Azam [Khan] is saying to write the minutes […] and we will keep the photostat.
Azam Khan: This cypher came on the 7th, 8th or 9th [March]?
Another person [present in the meeting]: It came on the 8th.
Imran Khan: But the meeting took place on the 7th. We do not have to name Americans under any circumstances. So on this issue, please, nobody should name the country. This is very important for all of you. From which country did the letter come? I don’t want to hear it from anyone.
Asad Umar: Are you intentionally calling it a letter? Because this isn’t a letter, it is a transcript of the meeting.
Imran Khan: It is the same thing, whether it’s the meeting transcript or a letter. People won’t understand what a transcript is. You have to say this in your rallies.
In the first audio clip, Imran is purportedly heard saying: “We only have to play on this. We don’t have to name (any country). We only have to play with this, that this date was before. The new thing that will emerge is that the letter ….” Then, the second voice, believed to be of Azam, is heard, suggesting to Imran to hold a meeting on the cypher.
“See, if you recall, in that the ambassador has written in the end to (send) a demarche. Even if the demarche is not to be sent; I have thought a lot about it at night — you said they raised it — I thought about how to cover all this,” he says.
He says: “Let’s hold a meeting with Shah Mahmood Qureshi (who was the foreign minister during the PTI-led government’s tenure) and the foreign secretary. Shah Mahmood Qureshi will read out that letter and whatever he reads out will be converted into a copy. I will then make minutes that the foreign secretary has prepared this.
“But its (cypher’s) analysis will have to be conducted here. We will carry out the analysis and convert it into minutes as we want so that it becomes the official record,” Azam says and then elaborates that the analysis would conclude that it is an indirect threat: “It is called a threat in diplomatic language.”
Azam purportedly adds that “minutes are in my hands … we will draft the minutes.” Here, purportedly Imran is heard asking who would be called to the meeting: “Shah Mahmood, you, me and Sohail.”
Just these, the other person says. “We will do it tomorrow,” the person believed to be Imran replies. In turn, the voice, supposedly of Azam, is heard explaining that following this plan, “things will become a part of the record. Consider that he is the consulate for the state. When he will read it out, I will easily copy it and it will be on record that this has happened.”
Moreover, he suggests that “you (supposedly Imran) call the foreign secretary so that it doesn’t remain political and becomes a part of the bureaucratic record.” To this, the man believed to be Imran points out that an ambassador has written the cypher, implying that it should already be a part of the bureaucratic record since it has been written by an envoy.
“But we don’t have a copy of it. How did they release it?” the person on the other end is heard replying to Imran. Meanwhile, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said that the government will conduct a forensic audit of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and PTI Chairman Imran Khan’s leaked audio.