The US has once again denied allegations by Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan that Washington is attempting to engineer a regime change in Islamabad – including naming an American official who he claims sent threatening messages calling for his ouster – while expressing support for the country’s constitutional process and rule of law.
“These allegations are untrue. We respect and support the constitutional process and the rule of law in Pakistan “On Monday, a spokesperson for the US State Department stated.
The US official stated that Washington is “closely monitoring developments in Pakistan,” despite the fact that the country’s Supreme Court has taken up the issue of constitutional propriety.
“As I stated last week, we support Pakistan’s peaceful implementation of constitutional and democratic principles,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters during his daily news conference.
“This is true throughout the world. We make no preference for one political party over another. We support broader principles, such as the rule of law and the principle of equal justice under the law,” he stated.
Price reiterated that there is no truth to allegations that the US is interfering in Pakistan’s internal affairs and attempting to destabilize Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government.
“The allegations are completely false,” Price stated in response to a question.
Imran Khan previously abandoned all pretense of the US role by euphemistically referring to a “foreign power” rather than directly naming it. He went further in a weekend meeting with his party members, directly naming Donald Lu, the Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, as the person purportedly seeking regime change in Islamabad if US-Pakistan relations were to improve.
Lu, a 30-year State Department veteran, previously served as ambassador to Albania and Kyrgystan and is now the State Department’s point person for the region.
According to Khan, Lu made threats against Pakistan during a meeting with Pakistan’s outgoing Ambassador Asad Majeed Khan, warning that if he (Imran Khan) survived the opposition’s no-confidence motion in the National Assembly, there could be consequences.
