Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Former Prime Minister and PTI Chairman Imran Khan said Saturday he was right all along and the National Security Committee (NSC) endorsed that the cable from the United States was genuine. He was addressing his first press conference after his removal from office via a no-confidence motion, said the NSC meeting — with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in the chair — endorsed that Pakistan’s ex-ambassador to the US met American official Donald Lu, where the latter used undiplomatic language.

“I will go a step forward and say that he was arrogant […] the Joe Biden administration official told our ambassador that Imran Khan will have to be removed through a no-confidence motion,” the PTI chairman said, adding that the meeting took place before the no-trust motion was filed.

Reiterating his claim, Khan said the US official told Pakistan’s ambassador that everything would be forgiven for Islamabad if he was removed from office.

Khan said following this meeting, the PTI allies started “realising” that the country’s situation was not ideal and that the then-government needed to be removed from power.

“But let me tell you, our economic situation was very good […] our exports, remittances, tax collection, agricultural output, and the price of agricultural products were all historic,” he said.

“This has also been confirmed — after the new NSC statement — that the political heads and some of our allies were unaware that they were part of a foreign conspiracy,” he said.