Commenting on the statement given by the US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu to the Subcommittee of the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs on Wednesday, PTI leader Babar Awan said on Thursday that Lu’s statement was enough to declare former prime minister and ex-PTI chairman Imran Khan not guilty in the US cipher case, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

Talking to media outside the Islamabad High Court (IHC), he said that Lu had said since there was no existence of the cipher; therefore, the government should immediately take the case against the former prime minister back. “If the US assistant secretary shows his ignorance of the letter then the case filed against Imran is ‘false’,” he added.

Calling Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif-led government a thief of the people’s mandate, Babar said that those in the corridors of power loved to salute their foreign masters. “The first thing they do is to salute Lu,” the PTI leader said.

He went on to say that the US would try its best to prevent the laying of the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline. “Is it not an interference in the internal matters of the country,” he said, adding, “Shame on those who refuse to call it an interference.”

He further said that following the assistant secretary’s statement, Imran’s standpoint now stood vindicated.