ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan has reacted to a press conference on Thursday by the head of Pakistan’s premier spy agency as well as the military spokesperson, saying it was not the “job” of army officers to hold media talks to discuss political issues.
In an unprecedented presser on Thursday, ISI chief Lt. Gen. Nadeem Anjum slammed Khan over his criticism of the military and questioned the ex-premier’s motives behind anti-army remarks and portraying Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa as a “traitor” among his followers.
Khan, long believed to be close to the military, is considered to have fallen out with the army since his ouster via a parliamentary vote of confidence in April. Khan says the army should have intervened to save his government from what he calls a “foreign conspiracy” to remove him from office. The now ruling coalition government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the military have both repeatedly denied allegations Khan was removed in a plot backed by Washington.
“First of all, Pakistan army is a government institution as per the constitution and the heads of government institutions are coming and addressing press conference, then saying we are not involved in politics,” Khan said in an interview to a private Pakistani news channel.
“The MI6 head comes and does a press conference? I have not heard of this precedent. If it’s something related to them, a security issue, sure come and talk about it but they were doing a political press conference. I didn’t understand this.”
The ex-PM said a government official such as the defense or prime ministers should have addressed the press talk.
“How was it their [army officers’] job to be at a press conference,” Khan added. “And the kinds of things that were said, if I start replying to them, then it will hurt my country ... it would harm the armed forces.”
Among the accusations by the DG ISI against Khan was that he had offered an “indefinite extension” in service to the army chief when he was PM while now publicly calling him a “traitor,” and that despite the differences, Khan continued to seek secret meetings with military leaders.
Khan admitted to meeting top army officials at the President House, in discussions brokered by President Dr. Arif Alvi:
“I said only one thing in the meeting, which I always say publicly as well, which is that if you want to take Pakistan out of its current crisis, then there is no other way to do that but to hold free and transparent elections.”
During the presser, military spokesperson, Lieutenant General Babar Iftikhar, also addressed the issue of the killing of Pakistani journalist Arshad Sharif in Kenya last Sunday, saying the anchorman left Pakistan on the instructions of Salman Iqbal, the CEO of the TV channel he worked for, and after a threat alert was issued by the provincial administration of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party is in power.
Arshad Sharif was killed Sunday night when the car he was in sped up and drove through a checkpoint outside the Kenyan capital and police opened fire. Nairobi police expressed regret over the incident, saying it was a case of “mistaken identity” during a search for a car involved in a child abduction case.
The anchorman had left Pakistan in August, citing fears to his life and amid a slew of court cases on charges of sedition, among others. ARY News also subsequently fired him and discontinued his popular talk show.
“Everyone knows why attempts were made to silence Arshad Sharif,” Khan said. “Go and check his programs, who was afraid of Arshad Sharif? Go and check his programs, his tweets. This isn’t something that is hidden,” he added, in a veiled reference to the Sharif government and the military, of whom the slain journalist had of late been a harsh critic.