The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) has strongly condemned the ‘highly irresponsible remarks’ by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan against a senior officer of Pakistan Army.
In a statement issued today, the Pak Army’s media wing Director Maj Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said that Imran Khan has levelled ‘highly irresponsible and baseless allegations’ against a serving senior military officer ‘without any evidence’.
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“These fabricated and malicious allegations are extremely unfortunate, deplorable and unacceptable,” the ISPR maintained.
The army’s spokesperson, in the statement, also said that a pattern has been witnessed over the last year, wherein, the army personnel are targetted for one’s political motives.
“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.”
The ISPR DG added that politicos should refrain from making baseless allegations and warned that if such a trend were to continue, the army had the right to take legal action.
“We ask the political leader concerned to make recourse to legal avenues and stop making false allegations. The institution reserves the right to take legal course of action against patently false and statements and propaganda.”
Earlier, Premier Shehbaz Sharif lambasted Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan for ‘maligning and threatening’ Pakistan Army.
In a tweet, the prime minister said Imran Khan’s act of ‘routinely maligning and threatening Pakistan Army and Intelligence Agency’ for the sake of petty political gains was highly condemnable.
In replay, Imran Khan slammed the premier, asking whether “[military] officers were above the law?”
“As someone who has suffered 2 assassination attempts on his life in 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?”
“Does SS tweet mean mly officers are above the law or that they cannot commit a crime?” he wondered. The PTI chief further asked that if a person is being blamed for a crime, how can it be perceived that an entire institution is being maligned?
“Who was so powerful as to sabotage Wazirabad JIT while PTI govt was in power in Punjab?”
Imran Khan, without naming anyone, said that when Premier Shehbaz can truthfully answer all his questions, it would point to point to one powerful man and his accomplices “all being above the law”.
“Then it is time for us to officially declare that in Pakistan there is only law of the jungle where Might is Right.”
