ISLAMABAD: Pakistan military on Monday strongly refuted the “highly irresponsible and baseless allegations” levelled by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman and former premier Imran Khan against a serving senior military officer “without any evidence”.
The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) reacted to Khan’s allegations which he levelled in a speech during a rally on Saturday, accusing a senior officer of the country’s premier intelligence agency of “orchestrating plans to murder him.”
“Chairman PTI has levelled highly irresponsible and baseless allegations against a serving senior military officer without any evidence. These fabricated and malicious allegations are extremely unfortunate, deplorable and unacceptable,” read the ISPR’s statement.
It stated that this has been a consistent pattern for the last one year, wherein, military and intelligence agencies officials are targeted with insinuations and sensational propaganda for the furtherance of political objectives.
“We ask the political leader concerned to make a recourse to legal avenues and stop making false allegations. The institution reserves the right to take legal course of action against patently false and malafide statements and propaganda,” the ISPR further stated. On Saturday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif took to Twitter to condemn the PTI chairman’s accusations, saying his allegations without proof against the serving military officers cannot be allowed.
“Imran Niazi’s act of routinely maligning and threatening [the] Pakistan Army and Intelligence Agency for the sake of petty political gains is highly condemnable. His leveling of allegations without any proof against Gen Faisal Naseer and officers of our Intelligence Agnecy [sic] cannot be allowed and will not be tolerated,” the prime minister tweeted. In response, the PTI chairman posed several questions to the prime minister through a series of tweets.
Imran hits back at PM Shehbaz for accusing him of ‘maligning’ Pakistan Army
“As someone who has suffered 2 assassination attempts on his life in [the] last few months, can I dare to ask SS the following Qs: Have I, a citizen, the right to nominate those I feel were responsible for assassination attacks on me? Why was I denied my legal & Constitutional right to register an FIR?” Imran Khan asked the premier.
“Does SS [Shehbaz Sharif] tweet mean military officers are above the law or that they cannot commit a crime? If we allege one of them has committed a crime, how is [the] institution being maligned? Who was so powerful as to sabotage Wazirabad JIT while PTI govt was in power in Punjab?” he further asked.
In another tweet, the PTI chairman asked the prime minister: “Can SS answer why the ISI took over ICT Judicial Complex evening before my appearance there on 18 March? Why were ISI personnel in CTD & lawyers camouflage? What was motive & what business did ISI have in the Complex? When SS can truthfully answer these Qs, all will point to one powerful man & his accomplices all being above the law.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023