U.S. Official Donald Lu Planned to Topple Pakistan Govt: Imran Khan
Imran Khan said that the opposition parties’ attempt to oust him from power was part of a “foreign conspiracy”.
By Rakesh Raman
Pakistan prime minister (PM) Imran Khan claimed on Sunday (April 3) that a U.S. official Donald Lu was involved in a conspiracy to topple his government. His claim came when a no-trust motion against him was rejected in the Pakistan’s National Assembly.
Imran Khan, 69, said that the opposition parties’ attempt to oust him from power was part of a “foreign conspiracy” while the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, Donald Lu was involved in this surreptitious subterfuge.
However, in an interview published in the Hindustan Times of April 2, when Donald Lu was asked if he conspired against Imran Khan, he gave a vague reply and did not respond to the question.
Imran Khan claimed that Donald Lu warned the Pakistani envoy to the U.S., Asad Majeed, that there would be implications if the Pakistan PM survived the no-trust vote in the National Assembly.
Meanwhile, the session in the National Assembly of Pakistan to vote on the no-trust motion against Imran Khan was suspended indefinitely after Deputy Speaker Qasim Khan Suri rejected the motion with the belief that it was part of a foreign conspiracy.
Later, in his address to the nation on April 3, Imran Khan said that in response to his advice to the President, the Assembly has been dissolved and elections will take place in Pakistan within the next 90 days.
The opposition leaders have challenged the dissolution of the National Assembly calling it an “unconstitutional” decision of the government and moved the Supreme Court to get the no-trust vote against Imran Khan held. A three-member bench of the Supreme Court of Pakistan has started hearing the matter and the hearing will resume today (April 4).
Although the next general election was scheduled to take place in 2023, opposition leaders have been demanding Imran Khan’s resignation amid allegations of rigged elections in 2018. It is being alleged that he had won fraudulently with support from the Pakistan army, which now controls Imran Khan.
Thousands of protesters in Pakistan are holding continuous protests against Imran Khan and his failure to run the country, which is facing an unprecedented socio-economic crisis.
A similar predicament has been persisting in India where people are facing extreme misery, including unemployment, inflation, corruption, and human rights violations under the government of PM Narendra Modi who is an uneducated religious demagogue.
However, Modi’s failures are not being challenged because the Indian opposition parties are very weak and the Supreme Court judges are so spineless that they cannot dare to take any decision that may displease Modi.
By Rakesh Raman, who is a national award-winning journalist and social activist. He is the founder of a humanitarian organization RMN Foundation which is working in diverse areas to help the disadvantaged and distressed people in the society.
