Who is Donald Lu — US diplomat who allegedly ‘threatened’ Imran Khan?

Beleaguered Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has claimed that assistant secretary of state for south and central Asian affairs Donald Lu was allegedly involved in the "foreign conspiracy" to overthrow his government through a no-confidence vote and had sent a threatening message to him through Pakistan's ambassador to the US Asad Majeed.

"The US had sent a threatening message through Pakistan's envoy," Dawn quoting Imran Khan reported.

Khan said Lu had warned the Pakistan ambassador that there would be implications if the Pakistan PM survived the no-confidence vote. Khan said the no-trust motion against him was a "conspiracy" and thanked Allah that it failed.

During his statement which was televised, Khan told them that when the National Security Council (NSC) had condemned the involvement of an external force in no-trust resolution, counting (of votes on the motion) had become "irrelevant".

According to Dawn, the PM said he had reports that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) dissidents had frequented the US embassy. "What were the reasons that the people, who have left us, met people of the embassy frequently in the last few days," he said.

Who is Donald Lu?

Lu is a foreign service officer with more than 30 years of US government service. He has served as deputy chief of mission in India from 2010 to 2013.

As the assistant secretary of state for south and central Asia, Lu is the top US diplomat in the state department focused on the region. A former US ambassador to Kyrgyzstan and Albania, he has also served in the US embassy in New Delhi on two separate occasions.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Sunday appeared in a video aired at the Grammy Awards in the United States and appealed to viewers to support Ukrainians "in any way you can."

Lu became assistant secretary of state for south and central Asian affairs in September last year. Prior to this, he served as the US ambassador to Kyrgyzstan from 2018 to 2021 and Albania from 2015 to 2018. Before his posting in Albania, Lu worked on the Ebola crisis in West Africa as the deputy coordinator for Ebola response in the department of state.

Earlier in his career, he was assigned as deputy director in the office of central Asian and south Caucasus affairs, bureau of European affairs (2001-2003), political officer in New Delhi (1997-2000), special assistant to the ambassador in New Delhi (1996-1997), political officer in Peshawar between 1992 and 1994.