Islamabad, March 24: Pakistan’s defence minister Khawaja Asif on Friday lashed out at former premier Imran Khan’s “hypocrisy” for seeking help from the United States after accusing Washington of toppling his government last year.
Addressing a press conference, Asif said that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief’s aide sent a letter to the US, seeking its help, after Khan named a top US diplomat of plotting to oust him from power last year. This shows the “total sum of Imran’s journey,” Asif said.
“His political journey started with a cypher – in which he had accused the US of conspiring against the PTI government,” Asif said. “And today, Shireen Mazari (former human rights minister) has written a letter to the US for him.the country he once accused of conspiracy . he is now seeking help from them,” the minister said.
Khan, 70, has previously demanded the sacking of US Assistant Secretary of State for Central and South Asia Donald Lu for “sheer arrogance and bad manners”.
Lu is the central figure in Khan’s claims about a US-backed regime change plot that toppled his government through a no-confidence motion in April last year. The PTI chairman accuses Lu of threatening Pakistan’s former ambassador to the US, Asad Majeed, that a failure to remove Imran through a no-confidence vote would herald “consequences” for Pakistan and vice versa. Asif also criticised Khan for creating a cult of violence and vowed to counter his followers with full force if they challenge the writ of the state. (PTI)
