Analyst Fahd Hussain said that it was wrong to say that Imran Khan had been vindicated by the cipher’s leak. He said that merely saying that the US government was not happy with the Pakistan government’s policy was not a matter of significance.

Speaking to Asma Shirazi in Faisla Aap Ka, he said that the demarche given to the US indicated already that there was objectionable content in the cipher. However, violating diplomatic norms could not simply be equated with a conspiracy to oust Imran Khan.

Fahd added that the timing of the leak would only lead to more problems for Imran Khan.

Malik Ahmed Khan said that there were three consequences of the cipher being published by the intercept. The first, he said, was its illegality under the official secrets act. He said that the second consequence was its impact on politics as it was Imran’s entire campaign. The third, he added, was the possibility of a fabrication.

Khan added that the the discussion that made it to the cipher were actually made at a metting attended by other people as well. He added that an office as important as the prime minister’s had been used to hatch a conspiracy for politial purposes.

He added that he also had reservations over how the Lahoe High Court had issued a stay order over investigations into the cipher even though it was a statuatory right.

Fahd Hussain said that the cipher was not a public document and had been in the property of either the foreign office or the prime minister office or military headquarters. He said that the publication’s claim that it had been leaked by a military official could raise fingers since it was a sensitive document.

He added that the leak ‘undermined’ the whole system.

GDA leader Saira Bano added that the discussion over the timing of the leak was not important because everything in Pakistan happened on its time.

She added that there was a problem in Pakistan where people did not respond to the call of their conscience on time.

Elections

Bano said that the statement from ministers and the example of election delays in Punjab and KP had shown that it was no big deal to delay elections 90 or even 120 days.

She asked what the difficulty was in going to elections on time when a party had been completely sidelined already. Will there be a difficulty in building narrative? Bano asked.

Bano also said that the parties that were in government together might face difficulties in going to elections separately.

She added that Pir Pagara had predicted that no party would be able to get 2/3 majority and there would be no opposition to find. She added that the opposition in the outgoing assembly amounted to a pocket union and many were lining up for tickets from other parties.

Khan added that it was a victory for democaracy if the army had been pushed back from its support for Imran Khan’s government to a more ‘neutral’ role.

He added that the PTI government had literally laid economic landmines in its last three months. He gave the examples of violations to the IMF deal and petrol subsidy to support his claim of the government’s recklessness.

Khan said that it was no small feat that the PMLN government had managed to save the country from default. He claimed that despite inflation being a huge factor, the government had taken steps that were popular with the public.

Saira Bano replied that the government might have been saved from default but the ordinary man had already defaulted.

She added that the parties like MQM and BAP had magically aligned with the PTI in 2018 and had suddenly disappeared right around the time the cipher had emerged.

Fahd Hussain added that there was not much difference in how the PTI governemnt came to power in 2018 and how the vote of no confidence was carried out.

He added that it is too early to say that the allied parties did the wrong thing by taking up government through the vote of no-confidence.

He added that the things had been different before May 9 when PTI’s surge in popularity seemed overwhelming. However, now the coalition partners had a bright chance of returning to power.

However, he said that the coalition’s vicotry will not have been ‘earned’ and said it wuld have to be seen if the they learn the right lessons.