The cipher narrative spun by the PTI pretty much developed a life of its own. That was the point and there is little to no sign that the party has lost its momentum – despite the U-turns, the backtracking, the confusion, the clarifications. At the heart of the cipher spin was one Donald Lu – a man the PTI says was responsible for the alleged ‘foreign conspiracy’ hatched by the US to get rid of the PTI government in 2022. For two years, people have heard the name Donald Lu repeated ad-nauseam by the PTI and its leaders. This is how Imran Khan tells the tale: Donald Lu conveyed to Pakistan’s then-ambassador to the US Asad Majeed that the US could not work with Pakistan if Imran remained in power but ‘all will be forgiven’ if he was removed. Now, two years after the cipher conspiracy story and a month or so after a contentious election in Pakistan, US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu has testified before a Congressional panel and spoken up for the first time on this issue in public.
Lu appeared on Wednesday before a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee hearing on ‘Pakistan after the elections: Examining the future of Democracy in Pakistan and the US-Pakistan relationship’ and categorically rejected the allegations of involvement in removing the Imran Khan-led PTI government. Most disturbingly, he also revealed that he and his family received death threats following the launch of the cipher controversy in Pakistan, which he has said was a “complete falsehood”. There is little else to add to his testimony. For months and months, any half-decent political analyst or foreign policy expert in Pakistan has been saying the same thing: the cipher was used by Imran Khan as a red herring against his opponents.
Needless to say, Lu’s statement that these unfounded allegations have resulted in regular death threats against him, against his family, and there’s been involvement of local police is not something to be taken lightly. If this is true and there have been such death threats, then our politics has crossed a line of polarization that will be difficult to fix. Interestingly, Donald Lu called for an investigation into the electoral fraud claims, saying that the US is closely monitoring the probe into the rigging allegations. He also said that the US condemns “the electoral violence and restrictions on human and fundamental rights and restriction on internet services”. Will the PTI even realize that blaming the vote of no-confidence on a foreign conspiracy only damaged Pak-US relations? Donald Lu’s testimony was largely pro-Pakistan, pro-Pakistani people and he said things that many other countries we consider allies would never even bring up. It is finally time for the PTI to sit at the adult table, stop the petulance, talk to other parties, help with governance, and think about Pakistan and its people.