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Pakistan’s Information Minister, Fawad Chaudhry, stated on Friday that a conspiracy to assassinate Prime Minister Imran Khan had been discovered by the country’s security agencies, ahead of the premier’s no-trust motion on Sunday.
Khan’s security has been tightened up as a result of the government’s decision in response to these reports, according to Chaudhry, as quoted by the Dawn daily.
His remarks come a week after Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Faisal Vawda said that a plot was being developed to assassinate Khan due to his refusal to “sell the country.”
Vawda made the remarks on ARY News about a letter Prime Minister Khan displayed at the PTI’s March 27 show of strength here, alleging it included “proof” of a “foreign conspiracy” to destabilise his government.
Vawda stated that Khan’s life was in danger.
He did not, however, say whether the alleged plot to assassinate the prime was mentioned in the letter.
Vawda further stated that Khan was told numerous times that bulletproof glass needed to be erected in front of his dais at the March 27 rally, but he refused.
The comments of Information Minister Chaudhry come a day after Khan, in his speech to the nation, threatened to foil “an international conspiracy” devised against his administration by Opposition leaders and their suspected handlers ahead of the no-confidence vote in the National Assembly.
In a televised address to the nation, 69-year-old Khan discussed a ‘threat letter,’ which he described as part of a foreign conspiracy to remove him because he was not acceptable for pursuing an independent foreign policy. In what looked to be a slip of the tongue, he labelled the United States as the country behind the threat letter.
Prime Minister Khan related the letter to the Opposition’s no-confidence vote in the National Assembly. The National Assembly is set to vote on the no-trust motion on Sunday.
Khan’s speech came at a critical time in his political career, when he lost his majority following a defection from his PTI party. Two of his affiliated parties also lost their support and joined the Opposition.
The US has claimed that it did not send any letter to Pakistan regarding the present political situation in the country, in an attempt to dispute allegations of American involvement in the no-confidence motion against the Imran Khan-led government.
Khan met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin on February 24, the day the Russian leader announced a “special military action” against Ukraine. Khan was also the first Pakistani prime minister to visit Russia in 23 years, following former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s visit in 1999.
