ISLAMABAD: Dr. Shireen Mazari, a senior member of former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, on Friday rejected Pakistani military spokesman’s claim about Khan approaching the army chief, seeking to resolve a deadlock with then opposition parties.
Last week, Khan became the first Pakistani prime minister to be ousted from office via a vote of no-confidence. In an interview earlier this month, Khan disclosed that Pakistan’s powerful military establishment had given him three options in the wake of the no-trust motion. The options, he said, included facing the no-trust vote, resigning or holding early elections. Khan had said he favored early elections.
On Thursday, Major General Babar Iftikhar, the Pakistani military spokesman, contradicted with Khan’s claim, saying the prime minister’s office had reached out to the army chief to put an end to the deadlock with the opposition. He categorically denied the military had presented Khan with any options.
But Mazari, a former human rights minister and a close aide of Khan, rejected Maj Gen Iftikhar’s statement.
“Let me be clear — I am stating on record PM did not call military for help on ‘breaking pol deadlock’,” she said on Twitter.
Mazari said it was the military that sought the meeting through then defense minister, Pervaiz Khattak, and presented the “three proposals of either PM resigning or taking part in VNC (vote of no-confidence) or fresh elections!”
In another tweet, Mazari questioned the logic behind the ISPR DG’s statement, wondering why Khan would agree to the option of resignation when he had stated on record that he wouldn’t do so.
“Also, Imran Khan had categorically rejected VNC as foreign regime change conspiracy,” she wrote. “So why would he suggest these options. Absurd!”
Pakistan has been ruled by the military for about half its 75-year history and tensions between governments and top generals often dominate politics.
In his press briefing, Iftikhar had requested political parties to not “drag” the country’s armed forces away into politics.
“The army has nothing to do with the political process that took place a few days back in the country,” he said, referring to the no-trust vote. “Do not drag the army into political matters.”
Asked about the army’s stance on Khan’s claim of a foreign conspiracy to oust him and if the military leadership had endorsed the claim at a National Security Committee (NSC) meeting last month, Iftikhar had said: “As far as military response about the NSC meeting is considered, that stance, in that [NSC] meeting, was fully given, and then a statement was issued, which clearly says what was concluded in that meeting.”
“Is there any word such as conspiracy used in it [statement], I think not,” he added.
The spokesman had also announced Pakistan’s army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa would neither seek nor accept an extension in his tenure.
