WASHINGTON (Dunya News) – US lawmaker and Congressman Brad Sherman has demanded US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Donald Lu meet with the incarcerated PTI founder at Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail to hear his stance regarding his allegations against the US of ousting his government in 2022.
Sherman’s demand came during the hearing conducted by a subcommittee of the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs that examined the future of democracy in Pakistan and the US-Pakistan relationship, especially in the wake of general elections in Pakistan.
During the Congressional hearing, when Sherman, who is also one of the committee members, asked Donald Lu what arrangements had been made regarding the sentence awarded to the PTI founder, he was told that the US had conveyed its reservations to the Pakistani authorities in this respect.
Lu contended that he had no role in the ouster of the former Pakistani prime minister.
At this, Brad Sherman asked the US diplomat to hold a meeting with the PTI founder at the jail to hear his stance. He also asked him to review the allegations of wrongful sentence handed down to the incarcerated former premier.
In the congressional hearing on Wednesday, Donald Lu refuted the cipher allegations laid against him by the PTI founder. He called the cipher issue a “conspiracy theory, lie and complete falsehood”.
Lu asserted to the subcommittee that Asad Majeed, who was then serving as Pakistan's ambassador to the US, had informed his own government that there was no such conspiracy.
Lu is the diplomat whose supposed warning to Asad Majeed was the subject of a cipher transmitted to Islamabad.
The same document, used by the founder of PTI to claim a conspiracy by the US to overthrow his government, is now central to the trial against him for mishandling confidential diplomatic cable.
This issue frequently arises during US State Department press briefings, with journalists from both Pakistan and the US bringing it up. The US has consistently denied the allegations as baseless.