Two more audios of Imran leaked; Shehbaz says Imran’s hypocrisy exposed

ISLAMABAD: Two audios of PTI chief and former prime minister Imran Khan leaked on Friday have put the spotlight on political intrigues at the Prime Minister’s Office during the term of now ousted premier Imran Khan, with one raising questions about his involvement in political horse-trading and the other about the truth to his allegations that he was removed from office in a foreign conspiracy.

Last month, a slew of audio recordings of conversations between key government figures were leaked online from the PM’s Office. The first set of leaks included discussions between Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and members of his cabinet, while the last three leaks have purportedly featured Khan’s discussions with top aides while he was in office.

The first Khan leak last week revolved around a conversation between Khan when he was PM and his then principal secretary Azam Khan about a diplomatic cipher that was at the center of Khan’s allegations that his ouster was part of a regime change conspiracy hatched by the United States. Washington denies this.

Yet another alleged audio of former prime minister Imran Khan was leaked to social media on Friday, the latest in a series of recordings purportedly featuring the PTI chief talking about the cipher with PTI leaders Shireen Mazari and Asad Umar.

This audio is the second that was released in a day featuring the PTI chairman. In a rally this afternoon, Imran claimed the PML-N was behind a “new game of fake audios”.

The trio are discussing the cipher and allegedly strategising on how to “play it up in the public”. At the start of the audio, the voice believed to be of Umar is heard saying: “Another point is in hindsight that whatever we are doing now should have been done at least ten days ago.”

“The impact of this letter is far-reaching and it has reached all over the world,” Imran allegedly responds.

Another voice, believed to be of Mazari interrupts, saying, “The Chinese even have issued an official statement condemning the US intervention in the internal affairs of Pakistan.”

Imran then allegedly detailed the strategy, saying “the public is with us and we must ensure that the pressure must be at such a height that whoever goes to the assembly for voting must be branded for life and you have to brand them as Mir Jafar and Mir Sadiq.”

The PTI chief then purportedly pressed his party leaders to “spoon-feed people as their minds are currently fertile grounds”.

Earlier in the day, an audio recording leaked of a voice — sounding like Imran’s — discussing “buying five” and “numbers game”.

In the day’s first audio recording, a voice believed to be Imran’s says: “You have a misunderstanding that now the number game is complete […] don’t think this is over.”

“You see, 48 hours is a long long time. Big things are happening. I am making my own moves that we can’t make public,” Imran purportedly says.

The PTI chief allegedly goes on to say that he “is buying five”.

“I have given the message that those five are very important. And tell them that if they secure these five […] and if he secures 10, then the game will be in our hands. The nation at this moment is alarmed. Across the board, people want us to win somehow.

“Hence, don’t worry about whether this is right or wrong […] even if they break one, it would create a huge difference,” the voice, believed to be Imran’s, adds.

The audio clips released on Friday raise the number of clips allegedly featuring the PTI chairman to four. Of the four clips, three focus on the cipher, while one on political affairs likely to centre on parliament.

Last week audio leaked

Last week, an audio clip purportedly revealed a conversation between Imran and then principal secretary Azam Khan about the cipher — shared by Asad Majeed, the then envoy to the US — which Imran has used to peddle his foreign conspiracy narrative.

In the clip, the former prime minister allegedly tells Azam to “play up” the cipher and turn it into a foreign plot to oust his government but adds that there is no need to name any country.

A day later, another clip surfaced — supposedly a continuation of the conversation in the previous recording — purportedly featuring PTI leaders Asad Umar and Shah Mahmood Qureshi discussing the “foreign conspiracy” cipher with the former premier and ex-principal secretary.

Fawad Choudhary

On Friday PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry did not disavow the contents of the latest audio clip but said that “everyone knows where and how the audios are being made”.

In a tweet, the former minister asked: “By joining voices such as these will you prove NRO 2 to be valid?”

Shehbaz Sharif’s comments

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif later in the day said the “latest audio leak exposes the hypocrisy of Imran Niazi”. He added: “Someone who does not tire of lecturing nation on morality is himself blatantly involved in immoral horse trading. His fraudulent nature is being exposed every day. Niazi’s anti-state actions make him unfit for high office.”

PM Shehbaz has termed the surfacing of audio leaks a “very serious lapse” and announced that a high-level committee would be constituted to probe the matter.

At the same time, the premier has also said that Imran’s audio leaks were “an irrefutable endorsement” that the PTI chief was the “biggest liar on the face of the earth”.

Marriyum Aurangzeb

Meanwhile, Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb has said the latest audio leaks were a “slap on face” of narrative of the PTI chief that he had been conveying to people in his rallies.

“He has been calling horse-trading shirk in his rallies but audio leaks have revealed that he was also involved in it,” the minister said in a press conference in Islamabad today.

She said Imran must be questioned about audio leaks and his acts that allegedly sabotaged national security. “He played these games without weighing their pros and cons,” Aurangzeb said.

She said Imran “fooled” the masses, adding he must be questioned about it and the nation must now recognise “his plan”.

Imran Khan’s comments

PTI chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan on Friday alleged that the PML-N had “started a new game” of fake audios, saying that it was one of the party’s “specialties”.

“Maryam Nawaz has made all these fake audios, but remember: nowadays, it is not difficult to make such deepfake videos and we can do the same,” Imran said at a rally in Mianwali on .

Imran’s claim comes hours after a third audio recording surfaced on social media, purportedly featuring the PTI chief talking about horse-trading in parliament.

A steady stream of audio recordings have surfaced of late, allegedly featuring the leadership of the PTI and PML-N holding informal conversations never meant to be heard by the public.

Previous audio clips featured purported conversations between the PTI chief and his former ministers and principal secretary about a cipher that he has for long presented as evidence of a “foreign conspiracy” to oust him from office.

Last month, a slew of audio recordings of conversations between key government figures — including Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz and some members of the federal cabinet — were released as well, triggering alarm bells with regard to national security.

Neither the PML-N nor the PTI had denied the contents of the audios, but Imran’s deepfake claim today is the first time the party has attempted to challenge the authenticity of the audios.

However, in his speech, he called the audio leaks from the Prime Minister’s Office a “grave security concern”, saying that it was a “matter of worry” that the phone lines of the prime minister were being tapped.

“I ask our intelligence agencies […] your job is to protect the PM Office and if all these things are leaked, this your responsibility. You should understand [this] instead of threatening people and [indulging in] political engineering.”