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ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi on Tuesday called for a thorough investigation carried out by an “empowered judicial commission” into the alleged ‘regime change’ conspiracy to reach a logical conclusion and provide clarity to the people.
It came in response to an April 30 letter the former prime minister had written to the president and Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial requesting a public inquiry as well as the formation of a judicial commission to probe a “threat letter” which the PTI chairman claimed was evidence of the “regime change conspiracy”.
In a press release issued by the President’s Secretariat, the president stated: “Circumstantial evidence could lead the way towards some conclusions and provide closure to the people of Pakistan who deserved clarity”.
صدر مملکت ڈاکٹر عارف علوی کا سابق وزیراعظم عمران خان کے خط کا جواب
صدر مملکت نے خط میں حکومت میں تبدیلی لانے کے لیے مبینہ سازش کی مکمل تحقیقات کرنے پر زور دیا۔ pic.twitter.com/TdKCMB3wzv
— The President of Pakistan (@PresOfPakistan) May 10, 2022
“Underscoring the need for a full investigation into the matter, he informed Mr Imran Khan that he was sending his letter to the Prime Minister of Pakistan as well as to the Honourable Chief Justice of Pakistan, with the request that the latter may constitute an empowered judicial commission to conduct open hearings in this regard,” the press release stated.
The president said he had read the cypher telegram sent by Pakistan’s former ambassador to the US Asad Majeed Khan that contained an official summary of the meeting held with US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Affairs Donald Lu.
Alvi also referred to two meetings of the National Security Committee that he said had endorsed the view that Lu’s statements amounted to “unacceptable and blatant interference” in Pakistan’s internal affairs.
The president also highlighted that “in the history of Pakistan, people had alleged and strongly believed in many obvious but, unfortunately, unproven conspiracies”, the press release said.
President Alvi said that “top-secret archives” were sometimes declassified after decades or informed people made revelations or documents emerged in leaks that provided a “‘smoking gun’ kind of link to events and conspiracies on the world stage”.
The president emphasised that it would be a vigorous exercise to prove that a “smoking gun” had been identified in the “hand of a conspirator” or to find a possible money trail or to identify “meetings where people had been motivated towards covert action or where people had been bought and sold”.
It may be noted that the federal government had already decided to constitute an inquiry commission to probe the alleged “foreign conspiracy”, which former premier Imran Khan had been claiming was behind the removal of his government.
However, in a statement on Friday, the PTI vice-chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi had said his party demanded a commission formed by the chief justice of Pakistan, rejecting once again the government’s announcement of the formation of an inquiry commission on the ‘conspiracy letter’.
The issue was first raised by Imran at a public rally on March 27, four days before the first NSC meeting was held to review the contents of the cable.
Since then, Imran has referred to the cable in several public addresses and television interviews when talking about the alleged plot to remove him from power. The US, Imran claims, was annoyed with his “independent foreign policy” and visit to Moscow.
