September 30, 2022
Another purported audio clip of PTI Chairman Imran Khan and his team has surfaced, just days after a sound bite of the former prime minister allegedly telling his then-principal secretary Azam Khan to "play" with the US cypher had come to the fore.
The latest audio, purportedly featuring PTI's Imran Khan, Asad Umar and Azam Khan and Shah Mahmood Qureshi, can be heard below.
In it, Khan can allegedly be heard discussing the cypher with party leaders.
Imran Khan: Shah jee [Shah Mahmood Qureshi], we three [Imran Khan, Azam Khan and you] have to hold a meeting tomorrow, along with the foreign secretary [Sohail Mahmood]. [In the meeting], we will ask him to just sit quietly and write the minutes of the meeting as is. Azam [Khan] is saying to write the minutes [...] and we will keep the photostat.
Azam Khan: This cypher came on the 7th, 8th or 9th [March]?
Another person [present in the meeting]: It came on the 8th.
Imran Khan: But the meeting took place on the 7th. We do not have to name Americans under any circumstances. So on this issue, please, nobody should name the country. This is very important for all of you. From which country did the letter come? I don't want to hear it from anyone.
Asad Umar: Are you intentionally calling it a letter? Because this isn't a letter, it is a transcript of the meeting.
Imran Khan: It is the same thing, whether it’s the meeting transcript or a letter. People won't understand what a transcript is. You have to say this in your rallies.
On Wednesday, a sound bite of former prime minister Imran Khan allegedly telling his then-principal secretary Azam Khan to "play" with the US cypher had surfaced.
In the audio allegedly featuring Khan, a man could be heard talking about the cypher which Khan — time and again — has claimed mentions the "threat" to remove his government.
Khan allegedly told Azam in the audio — the date of which could not be ascertained — that "let's just play" with the cypher and not mention America's name.
In response, Azam tells Khan a scheme of how to use the cypher to forward PTI's political agenda — and in that, he also suggests using Foreign Secretary Sohail Mahmood so the matter can be highlighted at a "bureaucratic level".
In July, senior journalist Ansar Abbasi had warned that the audio would come forward and the PTI, in response to the blog, said that it would "not sit quietly" if such a thing happens.
The development came after audio leaks of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, federal ministers, and PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz surfaced last week.