Fawad Chaudhry holds meeting with US envoy Donald Blome

• Fawad says informed US officials of PDM's "misuse" of anti-terrorism and blasphemy laws.
• Political situation, PTI's position on various issues was discussed, says former minister.
• Meeting comes after Imran Khan's U-turn on US conspiracy allegations.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senior Vice-President Fawad Chaudhry confirmed that he held a meeting with US Ambassador Donald Blome and other senior officials, focusing on the worsening human rights situation in Pakistan, The News reported Friday. 

Taking to Twitter, the former information minister said: "Had a good meeting with US ambassador and senior officials. The worsening HR [human rights] situation in Pakistan was a particular focus of discussion." 

The PTI leader said that he informed the US officials of the party's concerns regarding the "misuse of anti-terrorism and blasphemy laws by the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM)-led government against the political opponents". 

During the meeting, Fawad wrote, the political situation and PTI's position on various issues came under discussion. He added that such meetings are part of a mutual desire to have relationships based on equality and well being of people.

The PTI leader’s meeting with the US diplomats took place after the U-turn taken by PTI Chairman Imran Khan on his long-standing position of blaming the US for regime change conspiracy and the ouster of his government in April last year.

For a long time, Khan — who was shown the door through a no-confidence motion in April last year — had been claiming that the US backed the regime change because it wanted to have military bases in Pakistan and use the country once again to meet its foreign policy objectives in the region and beyond.

The PTI chief has been alleging during his public rallies, media interactions and on other occasions that the US and its assistant secretary of state Donald Lu were behind his government’s ouster and even he had demanded sacking of the US diplomat for hurling threats on the country.

But to the astonishment of many, in an interview with the Voice of America, he took a step backward and claimed that former chief of the army staff (COAS) General (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa had close ties with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and they conspired and as a result the regime change took place.

Even before this interview, the PTI leadership had been interacting with US diplomats.