No evidence found for ‘foreign conspiracy’, says NSC

The National Security Committee (NSC) meeting held on Friday dismissed the claims of foreign conspiracy as a factor in the ouster of former prime minister Imran Khan.

The meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif which briefly reviewed the matter of the threatening letter.

It was attended by former ambassador to the United States Asad Majeed, Chairman Joint Chief of Staff Committee General Nadeem Raza, Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Muhammad Amjad Khan Niazi, Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Ahmad Babar and senior civil and military officers.

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar were also in attendance.

“The NSC discussed the telegram received from the Pakistan Embassy in Washington. Pakistan’s former ambassador to the US briefed the committee on the context and content of his telegram,” according to a statement released after the meeting.

It said the NSC examined the “contents of the communication” shared by the ambassador and “reaffirmed the decisions of the last NSC meeting”. “The NSC was again informed by the premier security agencies that they have found no evidence of any conspiracy,” the statement said, adding that the meeting concluded that “there has been no foreign conspiracy”.

The statement from the meeting concluded that the intelligence agencies had briefly investigated the letter and found no evidence of a foreign conspiracy. Security agencies also denied foreign involvement. The minutes of the previous meeting of the NSC held on March 31 were also included and discussed. The conclusion of that meeting was reaffirmed as well.

A day earlier an official statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said, “The meeting of NSC will begin at 2.30 pm on Friday in the Prime Minister’s Office.” The three service chiefs also attended the meeting chaired by the Prime Minister.

It should be noted that this is the first meeting of the National Security Committee after the overthrow of the PTI government, which is being chaired by Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif.

Earlier on March 31, a meeting of the National Security Committee was held on the issue of a ‘threatening’ letter sent to former Prime Minister Imran Khan in which the participants were briefed on the issue of the letter.

After the meeting, Imran Khan kept claiming in his speeches that the NSC had confirmed the conspiracy in the alleged letter.

The military spokesperson later said in a press conference that the word “conspiracy” was not used in the letter.