Pak envoy to US was debriefed by IK’s legal aides

ISLAMABAD: Two aides of Prime Minister Imran Khan debriefed Pakistan’s outgoing ambassador in Washington Asad Majeed Khan after he sent a cable detailing his meeting with the United States’ Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, Donald Lu.

One minister and one advisor each were assigned the task to extract further information and none of them had a background of diplomacy, said a source privy to the affairs. Both of them are lawyers by way of professional background.

It is not clear whether they did it to examine legalities ahead of their plan to politicise it or for some other reasons. However, they were later also at the forefront in the operation carried out to hinder the vote of no-confidence on the pretext that there was a foreign conspiracy behind it.

The duo sent the ambassador closed-ended questions to answer in either yes or no, a source said, and concluded their assessment accordingly. However, the security establishment is in disagreement with what has been perceived by Imran Khan and his team who thought as if there was an American plot to overthrow the government. According to the Reuters news agency, the military leadership conveyed to the PM that their conclusion is different from what he has arrived at.

There is a likelihood of setting up a fact-finding committee to sift facts from fictions once the current turmoil is settled as the unwanted publicity to the cable and inference drawn from it would have an adverse impact on already fraught relationship between the two countries which started deteriorating with the inauguration of Joe Biden as the US President.

Imran was having cordial relations with the former US President Donald Trump and it was obvious from the reception he got during his US visit which was marked by celebrations upon his return to Pakistan. It would later become the reason for a cold-shoulder response from the new administration as Biden has not called Imran since the former assumed the presidency.

Close watchers of this rupture in relationship attribute it to the open support of Trump by US-based leadership of PTI. They went on to raise funds for Trump which didn’t go well with the Biden campaign. Not only the fund raising was done, they made it known to Trump with a hope that he would win at all cost. It turned out counter-productive due to Biden’s win.

Where Imran counted on Trump in the US, he was betting on Prime Minister Boris Johnson in the UK as he would consider him an old friend, a relation further solidified due to his ties with Zac Goldsmith, Imran’s former brother-in-law who is the UK’s state minister for international environment.

It was therefore no surprise when Boris Johnson highlighted Imran Khan’s billion tree tsunami project in the United Nation General Assembly meeting last year. However, relations with him strained after Britain didn’t cooperate in the PTI government’s bid to bring back Mian Nawaz Sharif from the United Kingdom.