How cipher was mishandled by PTI-era PM Office

ISLAMABAD: Copies of the much-discussed cipher were sent to five key authorities by the Foreign Ministry in the second week of March this year, but except for the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) all others returned the document to the ministry after one month as per the standard operating procedure.

Interestingly, a designated joint secretary of the PMO, who is authorised to receive and keep such a document in his safe custody, never received the cipher copy after it was handed over to the-then prime minister Imran Khan.

The PMO files do not have any record of this particular cipher, which on inquiry was found to have been handed over to the-then prime minister by his Principal Secretary Azam Khan. The PMO only has the manipulated minutes of the cipher as was found discussed in the recently-leaked audio of Imran Khan, Azam Khan, Asad Umar and Shah Mehmood Qureshi.

Informed sources said that the Foreign Ministry,soon after receiving the cipher from its ambassador in Washington, decided to send its copies to five key authorities — the prime minister, foreign minister, foreign secretary, army chief and DG ISI. It was the foreign ministry’s decision who it should send the cipher copy keeping in view the nature of sensitivity or importance.

Copies were dispatched to all concerned. In the case of the prime minister, a deputy secretary to the secretary to the PM was called by the Foreign Ministry and handed over the copy in a sealed envelope with the direction to immediately deliver it to the principal secretary. Azam Khan was informed via mobile phone by the deputy secretary about the envelope but the former directed to present the same to him the next morning in his office. It was done.

On the PMO’s preliminary inquiry into the missing cipher copy from PM’s record, Azam Khan said that he had handed over the copy to the prime minister (Imran Khan).

Under the established SoP, such a cipher is formally received by a PMO joint secretary. He shows it to the prime minister and then keeps it in his safe custody. After one month, the copies are returned to the Foreign Ministry, which secures all these documents in its safest closets.

However, in this case neither the cipher copy was returned by the PMO nor the joint secretary or the office has any official record about the entry, movement or whereabouts of the document.

Recent audio leaks showed how the-then prime minister Imran Khan and his principal secretary decided to manipulate it to make it a US conspiracy. A day later, the two were joined by Asad Umar and Shah Mehmood Qureshi in a meeting held in Banigala where Imran Khan was heard suggesting to invite foreign secretary in a following meeting to discuss the cipher. Khan was also heard saying that minutes of the meeting would be recorded silently. It was being done without the knowledge of the foreign secretary to derive the manipulated meanings of the cipher as was suggested by Azam Khan in the first audio.