It's behind me': Imran Khan takes a U-turn on US conspiracy' claim

Imran Khan has said he wants to mend relations with the US if re-elected and no longer blames it for his removal as Pakistan prime minister, apparently taking a U-turn after accusing Washington of engineering his ouster by supporting the then Opposition's no-confidence motion.

Khan, 70, who was ousted in April in a no-confidence vote had been claiming that he was the result of a conspiracy between prime minister Shehbaz Sharif and the US, a top security partner to Pakistan that has provided the country with billions of dollars in military aid.

He had been claiming that the Opposition's no-confidence motion against him was the result of a foreign conspiracy because of his independent foreign policy on Islamabad's ties with countries like China and Russia and funds were being channelled from abroad to oust him from power.

In an interview with the Financial Times following an assassination attempt this month, Khan said he no longer blamed the US and wants a dignified relationship if re-elected.

As far as I'm concerned it's over, it's behind me, he told the British financial newspaper of the alleged conspiracy, which both Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the US deny.

Khan has claimed that Donald Lu, the top American official dealing with South Asia in the US State Department, was involved in the foreign conspiracy' to topple his government.

The Pakistan I want to lead must have good relationships with everyone, especially the United States.

Our relationship with the US has been as of a master-servant relationship, or a master-slave relationship, and we've been used like a hired gun. But for that I blame my own governments more than the US, the newspaper quoted Khan as saying.

Reacting to Khan's interview, Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb Monday fired a broadside at Khan, saying that he had now given up the foreign conspiracy narrative after playing havoc with the national interests.

Aurangzeb said the former prime minister could not be pardoned after retracting from his narrative and that he will be held accountable.

The minister said that on the basis of this narrative, chaos and lies were spread throughout the country and now a simple withdrawal was not enough.

After terming the parliament, the Pakistan Army, and the national institutions as traitors, he can't be let off just by saying it's behind me and it's over," she said.

She said Khan forced people in constitutional positions to violate the Constitution for the sake of his concocted story.

Khan, she said, had no other option but to surrender his fake rhetoric of the conspiracy, imported government and regime change. Imran Khan put Pakistan's interests in grave danger for the lust for power, she added.