Memon made the comments in an interview with a private television channel. The revelation had been been by an anonymous Twitter account earlier. The tweet, part of a string, has been deleted since then.
Confirming the same, Memon said the then prime minister had employed extremely unbecoming language for Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) vice-president Maryam Nawaz in his presence. The abuse, he said, had left him infuriated.
Responding in kind, Memon had told Imran off for employing such language then. The former FIA DG said his tone was so harsh that the exchange got have very well descended into trading abuse.
Bureaucrat Azam Khan, then principal secretary, had grabbed Memon's hand as he witnessed the exchange. He then, Memon said, had led him to a washroom in the prime minister's house. Azam had locked him there then. The bureaucrat had then snubbed Memon for having the audacity to address the prime minister in such a manner.
Naya Daur executive editor Murtaza Solangi, however, presented a varying version in a tweet on Wednesday. Solangi claimed Azam had led Memon to the washroom to "calm him down" following his spat with the prime minister. "The locking up of Bashir Memon by PS PM Azam Khan or PM staff is not correct according to Bashir Memon. Azam Khan actually took him to bathroom to beg him to calm him down as Memon had confronted Imran when he abused Maryam Nawaz Sharif," Solangi said in his tweet.
A series of audio leaks involving citizens of note has rocked Pakistan. An audio of an alleged four-way coversation featuring PTI heavyweights including chairman Imran Khan surfaced earlier on Friday.
The PTI chairman can be heard saying that the foreign secretary should be discreetly directed to author minutes of the cypher long cited as evidence by Khan of a foreign plot to oust him from power. The directive, he says, would be handed out at a meeting between senior bureaucrat Azam Khan, then foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and himself.
“Azam is saying photocopies of the minutes can be retained,” Khan can be heard saying. The PTI chairman can be heard directing those partaking in the conversation: former planning minister Asad Umar, Qureshi and Azam to remain mum on the United States. “This is an election issue. Not a word,” Khan directs.
The former planning minister can be then heard remarking that Khan had been using the term “letter” deliberately. “It is actually the transcript of a meeting,” he says.
“They are one and the same thing,” Khan responds. “The people won’t understand what a transcript is. Such language — letter for transcript –is routinely employed for public consumption."
Khan claimed earlier on Wednesday that PM Shehbaz Sharif was behind the leak of a purported audio of his conversation with bureaucrat Azam Khan on a cypher long cited by the PTI chairman as evidence of an international conspiracy to oust him from office.
“Shehbaz Sharif and all are behind this leak,” Khan told journalists. He welcomed the leak sardonically saying it bode well. “They have done a great job,” he said. Asked to clarify by what he meant by his use of the term “play” in the audio, Khan said he was yet to commence his “innings”.
In the recording, the former PM can be allegedly heard directing his principal secretary on how what needed to be done was just “play” on the cypher. “All we need to do is play on this cypher,” he can allegedly be heard saying.