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Will resign if Imran Khan's 'foreign conspiracy' charges are proved: Shehbaz Sharif
“I will resign and go home if the conspiracy is proved in letter controversy,” Shehbaz Sharif, the 70-year-old politician said while addressing the national assembly after being elected the new Prime Minister of Pakistan.
Pakistan's newly elected Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday said he will resign if the charges of an alleged conspiracy to topple previous Imran Khan government was proved. Sharif termed the entire conspiracy claim by former Prime Minister Imran Khan as a drama.
“I will resign and go home if the conspiracy is proved in letter controversy,” the 70-year-old politician said while addressing the national assembly after being elected the new prime minister.
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Dismissing the purported letter that Imran Khan claimed of having received on March 7, Sharif said that his party on March 3 had decided to move the no-confidence motion and went to other opposition parties.
The new Prime Minister further added that Pakistan's parliamentary security committee will arrange an in-camera briefing on the letter. The briefing will be attended by service chiefs, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) director general Nadeem Anjum, foreign secretary and former envoy to the United States, Sharif said.
Imran Khan, who was ousted as the Prime Minister on Sunday, alleged ahead of the no-confidence vote on April 9 that there was a foreign conspiracy plotted in the United States to overthrow his government with the help of the opposition parties.
Khan had said that the no-confidence motion against him was the result of a “foreign conspiracy” because of his independent foreign policy.
The cricketer-turned-politician alleged that Donald Lu, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs in the Department of State was involved in the conspiracy to topple the PTI-led Pakistani government.
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"Pakistan became an independent state in 1947, but the freedom struggle begins again today against a foreign conspiracy of regime change. It is always the people of the country who defend their sovereignty and democracy." Imran Khan tweeted on Sunday after his ouster.
However, the United States rejected Khan's allegation and said that there was absolutely no truth to these claims.
“Let me just say very bluntly there is absolutely no truth to these allegations. Of course, we continue to follow these developments, and we respect and support Pakistan’s constitutional process and rule of law. But again, these allegations are absolutely not true,” deputy state department spokesperson Jalina Porter said on last Friday.
