{"id":71511,"date":"2024-03-15T13:21:05","date_gmt":"2024-03-15T13:21:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/donald-lus-impending-testimony-on-pakistan-elections-not-unusual-says-us\/"},"modified":"2024-03-15T13:21:05","modified_gmt":"2024-03-15T13:21:05","slug":"donald-lus-impending-testimony-on-pakistan-elections-not-unusual-says-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/donald-lus-impending-testimony-on-pakistan-elections-not-unusual-says-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Donald Lu\u2019s impending testimony on Pakistan elections not unusual, says US"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<p>The US State Department has clarified that Assistant Secretary Donald Lu\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1821294\">upcoming appearance<\/a> before a Congress panel is a routine testimony that aligns with the regular practice of US officials providing updates to Congress.<\/p>\n<p>The House Subcommittee on the Middle East, Africa, and Central Asia will hold a <a rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"link--external\" href=\"https:\/\/foreignaffairs.house.gov\/press-release\/subcommittee-hearing-announcement-pakistan-after-the-elections-examining-the-future-of-democracy-in-pakistan-and-the-us-pakistan-relationship\/\">hearing<\/a> titled \u201cPakistan After the Elections: Examining the Future of Democracy in Pakistan and the US-Pakistan Relationship\u201d on March 20.<\/p>\n<p>The hearing will also delve into the dynamics of US-Pakistan relations following the Feb 8 general elections.<\/p>\n<p>The PTI and its leader, Imran, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1682104\">claim<\/a> that Lu threatened to destabilise the PTI government during a March 2022 meeting with then-Pakistani ambassador in Washington, Asad Majeed Khan.<\/p>\n<p>This matter is often raised during US State Department news briefings by journalists from both Pakistan and the US. The department <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1721444\">consistently<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1765590\">refutes<\/a> these allegations as baseless.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  sm:w-1\/2  w-full  media--right  media--embed  media--uneven\">\n<p>    <iframe class=\"nk-iframe\" onload=\"setInterval(()=&gt;{try{this.style.height=this.contentWindow.document.body.scrollHeight+'px';}catch{}}, 100)\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"height:400px;position:relative\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/card\/1821294\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups allow-modals allow-forms\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Lu, the Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, is currently the only confirmed witness for the hearing, although additional witnesses may be included.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAny number of State Department officials testify all the time before Congress. We see it as an important part of our jobs to help Congress do its job, both from a policymaking perspective and from an oversight perspective,\u201d said State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller when asked about the scheduled hearing at a news briefing on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo we always look forward both to the informal conversations we have with Congress, the formal conversations, and of course the actual testimony that our officials provide,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>When asked if the department was concerned about Lu\u2019s safety during the hearing due to previous threats, Miller stated, \u201cOf course, we take any threats towards US officials seriously and condemn any effort to threaten the safety and security of our diplomats.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The spokesperson reiterated the rejection of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1682104\">allegations<\/a> against Lu regarding the toppling of former prime minister Imran Khan, stating, \u201cThe underlying allegations against Assistant Secretary Lu, they\u2019re false. They\u2019ve always been false. You\u2019ve heard me say that more than once, more than twice, more than ten times probably.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  sm:w-1\/2  w-full  media--right  media--embed  media--uneven\">\n<p>    <iframe class=\"nk-iframe\" onload=\"setInterval(()=&gt;{try{this.style.height=this.contentWindow.document.body.scrollHeight+'px';}catch{}}, 100)\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"height:400px;position:relative\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/card\/1769320\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups allow-modals allow-forms\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>In a statement from Houston, Texas, the PTI\u2019s US chapter had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1821294#:~:text=PTI%E2%80%99s%20US%20chapter-,claimed,-that%20%E2%80%9Cpersistent%20efforts\">claimed<\/a> that \u201cpersistent efforts\u201d by Pakistani Americans led to the much-anticipated announcement of a Congressional hearing on this.<\/p>\n<p>This bipartisan hearing is expected to draw significant attendance from both Democratic and Repub\u00adlican legislators.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The US State Department has clarified that Assistant Secretary Donald Lu\u2019s upcoming appearance before a Congress panel is a routine testimony that aligns with the regular practice of US officials providing updates to Congress. The House Subcommittee on the Middle East, Africa, and Central Asia will hold a hearing titled \u201cPakistan After the Elections: Examining [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71512,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2024\/03\/15165118baf790a.png?r=165343","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-islamabad-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}