Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has rubbished his predecessor Imran Khan’s narrative of the “US conspiracy” yet again, saying that Pakistan would not have been able to purchase Russian oil at cheaper rates if the claim was true.

The statement came in the light of the recent controversy sparked by a news report by a foreign media outlet, The Intercept, claiming to have obtained the secret document which has been at the centre of controversy since March last year.

During an interview with WE News, Premier Shehbaz was asked that doesn’t the publishing of this news story authenticate the PTI chief’s narrative.

Responding to the query, the prime minister said that he headed two meetings of the National Security Committee (NSC) on the cipher, and in one of them the current foreign secretary Asad Majeed Khan — who was Pakistan’s ambassador to the US in March 2022 — said that he had only narrated his meeting with Donald Lu in that cipher.

PM Shehbaz quoted Majeed as saying in the meeting that “there was no mention of any conspiracy in that [cipher], and all Pakistan’s ambassadors, wherever deputed in the world, keep sending their conversations”.

He further said that the services chiefs, including then-army chief General (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa, were also present in that meeting and all of them accepted that the US didn’t conspire against Imran Khan.

“Secondly, Imran Niazi said that this conspiracy was hatched because his relations with Russia were flourishing. So, we [Shehbaz-led government] purchased cheaper oil from Russia. If, God forbids, this government was formed under a US conspiracy, then how could we get oil from Russia,” he said.

He went on to say that his government “restored” the ties with China to the same level as they were in 2017 when Nawaz Sharif was the prime minister.

PM Shehbaz recalled the instance when Khan retracted his “US conspiracy” statement by saying that America had not conspired.

Would you declare Imran Niazi’s first statement authentic or the second, he asked.

The report by The Intercept came to light right around the time when the National Assembly was dissolved last night. However, the US publication stated that it was not able to authenticate the document and verify its contents.

Responding to the development, Senior Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Rana Sanaullah said there was nothing new in the foreign media outlet’s story.

“Though there is nothing new in this story, the investigation needs to be held to establish the authenticity of the information or source document,” Sanaullah said.