‘Lie, complete falsehood’, says Donald Lu about Cipher allegation

WASHINGTON: US Assistant Secretary of State Donald Lu has dismissed former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s allegations of cipher conspiracy as baseless lies and falsehoods.

 While refuting former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s allegations that the US engineered his removal from power by supporting the opposition’s no-confidence motion in April 2022, US Assistant Secretary of State Donald Lu said, “I wanna be very clear on this point [that] this conspiracy theory is a lie [and] it is a complete falsehood.”

Donald Lu allegedly issued a warning to former Pakistan Ambassador to the US Asad Majeed, which became the content of a cipher dispatched by the envoy to Islamabad. This document was then cited by the PTI founder to assert a US conspiracy aimed at removing his government in 2022.

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The development comes as Donald Lu provided testimony before a Congressional panel on Wednesday.

“There is a line of acceptability and I think at times, some of the free speech has verged into threats of violence which is not acceptable in our society,” said LU adding that he and his family have been receiving threats due to allegations levelled against him.

In response to inquiries regarding the handling of individuals supposedly implicated in the May 9 incidents in Pakistan, Lu stated that the US had expressed its apprehensions regarding the widespread detentions following the May 9 riots and the utilisation of military courts.

This issue is frequently brought up during US State Department news briefings by journalists from both Pakistan and the US. The department consistently dismisses these allegations as unfounded.

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