ISLAMABAD: Senior leaders of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party on Monday described the army’s reaction to Imran Khan’s recent statement at a public rally in Faisalabad as “totally unnecessary” since the former prime minister’s argument during the speech had already been clarified by his political faction.
Khan, who was ousted from power in a no-confidence vote in April after losing his parliamentary majority, said the coalition government was delaying fresh elections in the country since it was hoping to appoint an army chief of its own choice to save its leaders from corruption cases.
The former prime minister, who has been seeking early elections since the fall of his administration and has accused his rivals of siphoning off public money, said the government wanted to appoint its “favorite” army chief since any “strong and patriotic” officer on that position would ask it about the wealth accumulated by its leaders.
The military’s media wing, ISPR, said in response it was “aghast” at Khan “defamatory and uncalled for” statement about its top brass while calling it regrettable that senior politicians were creating controversy about the army chief’s appointment.
“With all due respect, ISRP’s statement was totally unnecessary after the [PTI] leadership’s tweets and @fawadchaudhry’s very clear explanation that Imran Khan’s allusion to the [Chief of Army Staff] issue was entirely directed at the corrupt leadership of the [Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Pakistan Peoples Party] who have a history of targeting the military from Dawn Leaks to Memogate,” senior PTI leader and former federal minister Shireen Mazari said in a Twitter post while referring to the main coalition partners in the present government and their run-ins with the army.
“Unfortunately, the statement is a cause of concern since Khan’s statement has been misconstrued despite all the clarifications,” she continued, adding the former prime minister “did not criticize the army or its leadership anywhere” in his political rally.
Earlier, the senior vice president of the party, Chaudhry Fawad Hussain, held a news conference in which he said all top Pakistani generals had deep association with their country, adding that no one could doubt their patriotism.
He maintained that Khan was striving against the top political leaders in the government who had been plundering Pakistan.
“Is it in the interest of Pakistan that this political coterie [in government] makes the armed forces controversial,” he said. “Is it in the interest of Pakistan that the biggest plunderers, who are the real security risk for the country, make such [high-profile] appointments and carry forward matters? This was what Imran Khan was asking.”
Hussain said Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif was planning to go to London where he wanted to take approval from his elder brother and three-time ex-premier Nawaz Sharif before making the next army chief’s appointment.
The elder Sharif was convicted by an accountability court in a corruption reference before he went abroad on a medical bail but did not return. The ruling PML-N party calls cases against him as politically motivated.
“Can there be a bigger insult to the Pakistani military than this that an absconder, who is running away from Pakistani courts and its system, gives approval for the appointment of the next army chief,” Hussain asked.
Khan is also scheduled to address a public rally in Peshawar today where he is expected to respond to the controversy surrounding his remarks made in Faisalabad.