Former ISI chief Zaheerul Islam refutes claim of demanding Nawaz's resignation during PTI sit-in

(Karachi) Former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lt Gen Zaheerul Islam has refuted claim of demanding resignation from former premier and PML-N founder Nawaz Sharif during the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf sit-in in 2014.

The former ISI DG's comments comes days after Nawaz Sharif claimed that Islam conveyed a message in the middle of the night, asking for his resignation. Nawaz added that the ISI chief also threatened him if he did not resign, a martial law could be imposed in the country.

Nawaz Sharif, however, did not name the person who had brought the DG ISI’s message to him.

"I never sent anyone to convey any such message to [Nawaz], this is absolutely wrong," he said while speaking to The News.

Instead, Islam insisted that at every stage of the 2014 sit-in, he had advised the PML-N government to engage politically with the PTI and the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) to end the protest. Islam, however, was reluctant to talk further on the subject, the report stated.

Earlier in 2015, the then defence minister Khawaja Asif had named former DG ISI General Zaheerul Islam for his alleged role in destabilising the Nawaz Sharif government during the 2014 PAT-PTI sit-in. In an interview on television, Khawaja Asif had said that General Zaheer was behind the ‘London Plan’ conspiracy against the government.

In response to Nawaz's comments, Prime Minister Imran Khan said that if ISI DG had asked him to step down as the premier, he would have immediately demanded his resignation. “I am a democratically elected prime minister, who could dare tell me that,” the prime minister said.

He said that Nawaz had attempted to remove former military chief General (retired) Pervez Musharraf when he (Musharraf) was visiting Sri Lanka. “If any army chief had attacked Kargil without asking me, I would have summoned him before me and sacked him,” PM Khan said.