Khawaja Asif says in Pakistan’s 75-year history, no politician has put Pakistan’s security at risk except for Imran Khan
LONDON: After the recent audio leak of PTI chairman Imran Khan, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif believes that Article 6 of the Constitution, which pertains to high treason, applies to the former prime minister.
To a question on the government’s plans to move against the PTI chief, the minister said that the recent audio makes it an “ideal situation” to register an Article 6 case against the former premier.
The minister, while speaking to journalists in London, said that he was the only Pakistani on whom an Article 6 case was registered on the cabinet’s order during Imran Khan’s tenure.
“You must have heard Bashir Memon’s (interview) in which he said that the case does not apply to him. But a case is liable on him, as he’s confessing everything himself,” said Asif.
“In order to cling to power, Khan put Pakistan’s national security at risk. In Pakistan’s 75-year history, no politician has put Pakistan’s security at risk,” said Asif. He admitted that politicians have done things against each other and made mistakes but no one has done a “forgery” like the PTI leader.
“In today’s audio he’s saying do not take America’s name but at the same time is talking against it. I cannot even imagine that a political worker can be this shameful,” said the minister. He also slammed the PTI leader for underestimating the intelligence of the Pakistani people.
“Whichever Pakistani politician has underestimated Pakistani people’s intelligence has been disgraced,” said Asif.
The minister was speaking to the media hours after another purported audio clip of the PTI chairman and his team has surfaced, just days after a sound bite of the former prime minister allegedly telling his then-principal secretary Azam Khan to "play" with the US cypher had come to the fore.
The latest audio, purportedly featuring PTI's Imran Khan, Asad Umar and Azam Khan and Shah Mahmood Qureshi can be heard below.
In it, Khan can allegedly be heard discussing the cypher with party leaders.
On Wednesday, a sound bite of the PTI chairman, allegedly telling Azam Khan to "play" with the US cypher, surfaced.
In the audio, a man could be heard talking about the cypher which Khan — time and again — has claimed mentions the "threat" to remove his government.
Khan allegedly told Azam in the audio — the date of which could not be ascertained — that "let's just play" with the cypher and not mention America's name.
In response, Azam tells Khan a scheme of how to use the cypher to forward PTI's political agenda — and in that, he also suggests using Foreign Secretary Sohail Mahmood so the matter can be highlighted at a "bureaucratic level".
In July, senior journalist Ansar Abbasi had warned that the audio would come forward and the PTI, in response to the blog, said that it would "not sit quietly" if such a thing happens.
The development came after audio leaks of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, federal ministers, and PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz surfaced last week.