US Diplomat Denies Pushing Pakistani PM Khan Out of Office

FILE - Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan, right, and his wife, Bushra Bibi, speak to the media at a court in Lahore, Pakistan, July 17, 2023. On Thursday, a U.S. official rejected the charge that he or his government played a role in fomenting Khan's ouster. 

A top U.S. diplomat for South and Central Asia has for the first time publicly addressed allegations of conspiring to oust Pakistan's then-Prime Minister Imran Khan in 2022. Testifying before the House Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Donald Lu rejected the charge that he or his government played a role in fomenting Khan's ouster. "These allegations, this conspiracy theory, is a lie, it is a complete falsehood," Lu said responding to a question by committee Chairman Representative Joe Wilson, a Republican from the U.S. state of South Carolina. Cypher conspiracy In April 2022, Khan was expelled from power in a parliamentary vote of no-confidence. Khan has since alleged that a secret diplomatic cable, or cypher, sent by then-Pakistani ambassador to the U.S. Asad Majeed Khan, proves the United States conspired with Pakistan's military and opposition leaders to remove him from office. The cable described a March 7, 2022, meeting with Lu in Washington. Last August, an American news outlet, The Intercept, published what it said was the text of the cipher. According to Ambassador Khan's purported cable, the State Department officials at the meeting encouraged Khan to tell Pakistan's powerful military that Islamabad could expect warmer relations if Khan were removed from office because of his neutrality on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Pakistani prime minister was in Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the day the invasion began and failed to condemn it.