After the full text of the purported cypher - at the heart of a 'regime change' conspiracy pushed by former prime minister Imran Khan in the run-up to his ouster via a vote of no confidence - was published by an American news outlet, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Thursday demanded a high-powered judicial commission to probe the matter and make public its findings.
In a statement, a PTI spokesperson said that the emergence of the cypher has "irrevocably established the credibility and justness of the stance that Imran Khan, Chairman, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has repeatedly reiterated regarding the developments leading up to the removal of his constitutional and democratic government through a contrived vote of no confidence."
The statement pointed to how Imran had convened a National Security Committee (NSC) to discuss the matter. The high-powered body concluded that the message communicated by the US diplomat in the cable "amounted to blatant interference in the internal affairs of Pakistan by the country in question which was unacceptable under any circumstances".
It added that a subsequent meeting of the NSC presided over by the then Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif "reaffirmed the decisions of the previous NSC meeting".
However, the spokesperson stated that the Pakistan Democratic Movement government went from denying the cypher's existence to calling it meaningless to blaming Imran for making it public. "The ruling clique took one somersault after the other to mitigate its importance and relevance."
The spokesperson said it was important that the cypher debate be put in its right perspective and "acknowledge that an intervention in Pakistan's internal affairs had indeed taken place which led to the moving of a vote of no-confidence against Prime Minister Imran Khan."
"We reiterate our demand that a high-powered judicial commission should be constituted to investigate the issue comprehensively and make its findings public."