Pakistan PM says govt has sent official note to US embassy over alleged interference

Islamabad: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan said his government on Friday handed an official note to the United States’ mission in Islamabad to protest over what it called Washington’s interference in the country’s affairs.

“We now have given a demarche to (the) American embassy,” Khan told local television channel ARY in an interview, in reference to a diplomatic note over what he described as a foreign conspiracy to oust him from power.

Earlier, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said it had lodged a formal protest with the US over the alleged ‘threat letter’ that called for the resignation of Khan.

The acting US envoy in Islamabad was summoned to the Foreign Ministry over the “threatening” letter, hours after the country’s top decision-making body on national security voiced concerns over the issue during a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan, reports said.

A Pakistan Foreign Office official confirmed that a demarche was also handed over to the acting US envoy, adding that the US was told that the use of such undiplomatic language was unacceptable, the report said.

Call for early elections

“As decided in the National Security Committee (NSC) meeting held on 31 March 2022, the requisite demarches have been made through diplomatic channels,” the Foreign Office spokesperson said in a statement in the early hours of Friday.

The NSC meeting was attended by federal ministers for defence, energy, information, interior, finance, human rights and planning, besides the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, services chiefs, national security adviser and senior officers, the report said.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed on Friday urged the ‘responsible quarters’ to take the initiative and announce early elections to hold accountable those who ‘sold’ their votes, Express Tribune reported.

Addressing a ceremony held in Rawalpindi to confer upon the Waqar-un-Nisa College the status of a university, the minister added that Sunday would be an important day in Pakistan’s politics.

“Prime Minister Imran Khan will not be defeated by elements who looted the country for decades, and have now united against his government,” he said, adding: “Even if the no-confidence motion is successful on Sunday, everyone is with Imran Khan. Rawalpindi does not like those who sell their votes.”

The minister reiterated that he is standing with the premier like a ‘rock’.

“Imran Khan will fight against these plunderers and looters,” the minister stressed.

Rasheed said he also wanted the Nullah Leh project to be inaugurated, “but I guess people didn’t want that”.