Lettergate: PTI raises questions over NSC declaration

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has raised questions over today’s session of the National Security Committee (NSC) chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and its declaration, ARY News reported on Friday.

The PTI spokesperson said that the declaration has proved the political party’s stance true. The diplomatic cable was a reality as per Imran Khan’s statement.

The declaration has approved that interference in the internal affairs of Pakistan was made and the demarche was the right step following the order of the previous NSC session.

The spokesperson said that a judicial commission should be constituted without wasting time to ascertain the facts related to the issue. The political party demanded that the judicial commission should probe the threatening diplomatic cable issue in seven aspects.

• Was diplomatic cable containing the message of Pakistan’s representative?
• Isn’t it a reality that the no-trust motion was mentioned in the cipher?
• Wasn’t the diplomatic cable mentioning the condition to pardon Pakistan by removing Imran Khan from the prime minister’s office?
• Wasn’t the NSC declared interference in the internal affairs of Pakistan following the diplomatic cable?
• Hasn’t the decision to issue a demarche to the United States (US) taken over the recommendation of the ambassador or not?
• Did NSC recommend discussing the diplomatic cable issue in the parliamentary security committee or not?
• Content of the diplomatic cable should be probed to ascertain the reality
• An investigation should be launched over the usage of threatening language in the meeting and the nexus between internal characters.
• Did US diplomats hold special meetings with Pakistani politicians or not?
• Meetings with PTI turncoats should be investigated.
• The investigators should give their opinions after complete scrutiny.
• The thorough probe will ascertain the real motives of different characters and their connections with each other.

The political party has demanded an open probe of the judicial commission on the Lettergate issue and secretive proceedings will not be accepted.

NSC declaration

Earlier in the day, the National Security Committee (NSC) discussed the “threatening” telegram received from the Pakistan embassy in Washington and concluded that “there has been no foreign conspiracy” to oust Imran Khan’s government.

According to a statement issued after the meeting, the 38th NSC meeting, after reviewing the contents of the communication reaffirmed the decisions of the last NSC meeting (during former PM Imran Khan’s government).

It is pertinent to note here that in the last NSC meeting, the committee expressed serious concerns over the threatening memo of the communication of the foreign official, terming it undiplomatic and amounted to ‘blatant interference in the internal affairs of Pakistan by the country in question, which was unacceptable under any circumstances.’