Islamabad (Web Desk): After an audio recording of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders leaked on September 28, another recording emerged on Friday, supposedly a continuation of the conversation in the previous recording, featuring who are believed to be PTI leaders Asad Umar and Shah Mahmood Qureshi discussing the "foreign conspiracy" cypher with the former premier Imran Khan and ex-principal secretary Azam Khan.
In the audio, the PTI chief's voice can be heard, apparently stating that “we have to hold a meeting tomorrow, you and the three of us (Imran, Qureshi and Azam Khan) and the foreign secretary”.
The voice, believed to be of Imran Khan's, is heard saying that "In the meeting, we have to quietly tell them to write the minutes of the meeting”, adding that Azam Khan had said that the meeting minutes should be drafted and photocopied.
The second voice, supposedly of Azam Khan's, asks if "this cypher arrived on the 7th or 8th," before saying that "it came on the 8th".
Here, the person on the other end, purportedly Imran, is heard saying that the meeting was held on the 7th.
The apparent voice of the PTI chief constantly reiterates that “under no circumstances” should the country where the conspiracy emerged from be named.
“So on this issue please, the country's name should not be spoken by anyone. This is very important”, he can be heard saying.
The PTI chief puportedly emphasised that “the country the letter came from, I don’t want to hear the name from anyone”.
A voice supposedly belonging to Asad Umar then asks if Imran was calling it a letter "deliberately".
"This is not [a] letter, it is the meeting’s transcript," Asad can be heard saying.
In his reply, the man believed to be Imran says that both the letter and the transcript were "the same thing".
"People wouldn’t understand transcript. You say things like this in your jalsa."
Responding to the development, PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry did not disavow the contents of the audio but said that the purpose of such leaks was to divert attention from the acquittal of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) vice president Maryam Nawaz in the Avenfield case.
In a tweet the PTI leader said, “We took whatever caution was possible in diplomatic matters,”
Chaudhry said that the name of the country [US] was not revealed until the cabinet declassified the cypher. "The name, however, had to come to light when the cypher had been declassified, he added."
Former minister of state Farrukh Habib said the probe into cypher had now become the need of the hour, insisting that it was a reality and no Pakistani was willing to accept the intervention of a foreign power to effect regime change in the country.
Earlier on September 28, an audio leak allegedly of former prime minister Imran Khan and his then principal secretary, Azam Khan, surfaced in which the two were discussing about a cypher that the PTI chief has for long presented as evidence of ‘a foreign conspiracy’ to oust him from the top office.
In the audio clip, a voice, believed to be Imran’s, is heard saying: “We only have to play on this.
We don’t have to name any country. We only have to play with this, that this date was decided before, to which a second voice claimed to be Azam’s advises that a meeting be held on the topic first.
Reacting to the audio leaks, former minister Fawad Chaudhry did not confirm or deny its veracity.
"The only thing that the new leak confirmed was that “efforts were made to hide the US cypher from the [former] prime minister," Fawad tweeted.