Aprl15,2022:Pakistan’s powerful military has dismissed deposed Prime Minister Imran Khan’s accusation that the United States had conspired to topple him in a parliamentary vote of confidence.
Khan, 69, who led the South Asian country of 220 million people for three and half years, accused Washington of backing his removal because he had visited Moscow against US advice. Washington has denied the charge.
Khan met Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 24, the day Russian forces invaded neighbouring Ukraine.
Khan initially blocked the no-confidence motion, saying a forum of civil and military leaders, the National Security Committee, had endorsed the alleged conspiracy.
The military’s spokesman, Major General Babar Iftikhar, denied that the country’s National Security Committee, a forum of civil and military leaders, had endorsed the alleged conspiracy.
“You can see clearly whether there’s any word of conspiracy in that statement. I don’t think so,” he told a news conference about an NSC statement this month which had expressed concern about non-diplomatic language used in a cable from a “foreign country”, widely assumed to mean the US, about the no-confidence vote.
Pakistan’s lower house of parliament eventually voted in favour of removing Khan from office on Sunday.
Opposition parties and analysts have said the military helped Khan win the election in 2018, which both have denied, but that support waned after a falling-out over the appointment of the country’s next intelligence chief late last year.
