Job of security agencies is to defend country, not political engineering: Imran
In a veiled jibe, former premier and Pakistan Tehrek-e-Institute (PTI) Chief, Imran Khan, stated on Monday that the constitutional task of the country's security agencies was to defend its borders, not to meddle in political manipulation.
He said this during an interview with a private television channel on Monday.
In the interview, Imran was asked about the recent audios leaks in which he can be heard speaking with his then principal secretary Azam Khan and then close aides Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Asad Umar about the infamous diplomatic cable – “cypher” – containing the alleged threat of regime change by a foreign country and the alleged manipulation of cable content by Imran in response to his account.
Imran said that, in the case of the online audio leak, invariably, the security of the Prime Minister’s House was violated.
“Who is responsible for violating the Prime Minister’s security and who would question intelligence organizations [about it]?” he asked.
“Intelligence agencies should consider what they are doing,” he said in what seemed to be a double-edged statement.
“They threaten social media activists, but the main task of intelligence agencies is to defend the country,” he continued.
Noting that journalist Ansar Abbasi disclosed for the first time the news of the leak of his interview with Azam Khan, Imran wondered who wanted to record his conversations and then pass it on to the press.
“Even from my secure line, Bushra Bibi’s audio had been disclosed,” he said, inadvertently confirming his family’s use of official communication tools.
Having diverted attention from the content of the audio leaks, Imran worried about the severity of the breach, asking what other ‘state secrets’ have been divulged to Pakistan’s enemies due to the security lapse.