ISLAMABAD: Adviser to the Prime Minister on Political and Public Affairs Rana Sanaullah on Wednesday rejected opposition parties’ claims the government had pressured a local hotel in Islamabad against holding a two-day conference of an opposition alliance, urging its leaders to name the official who may have reached out to the hotel management.
The conference followed opposition parties forming a grand alliance under the banner of Tehreek-i-Tahaffuz-i-Ayeen-i-Pakistan (TTAP) — or the Movement for the Protection of the Constitution of Pakistan — after jailed former premier Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party’s failed negotiations with the government. The talks were meant to secure the release of political prisoners along with the formation of judicial commissions to probe two major anti-government protests by PTI that turned violent.
Earlier, during a press conference outside a local hotel in the capital, opposition leaders from the PTI, including Omar Ayub Khan, Asad Qaiser, and Salman Akram Raja, along with former PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai, alleged that the government was pressuring the hotel administration to cancel their booking.
“Which hotel person said the government told them not to allow the conference to take place?” Sanaullah asked during a talk show on Geo TV.
“Tell me who was it who did not allow [the hotel to host the conference]. Which person from the government? Which minister? Which officer said no?“
Sanaullah urged the opposition leaders to tell the truth instead of hurling allegations at the government.
“If anyone called and told the hotel to not to allow the conference to take place, tell us, we will contact that person,” he said, highlighting that the opposition leaders knew the government had not issued any such directive.
Meanwhile, on the same TV show, Abbasi said the government was afraid of the conference since it had not been properly elected in the last general elections.
He vowed that the opposition alliance would continue with the second day of the conference today, Thursday, from 10am onwards.
Pakistan government denies ‘pressuring’ Islamabad hotel from holding opposition moot
https://arab.news/j34zs
Pakistan government denies ‘pressuring’ Islamabad hotel from holding opposition moot
- Pakistan PM’s political adviser urges opposition leaders to name the official behind alleged incident
- Opposition leaders vow to hold the second day of their conference despite any political pressure
Pakistan’s defense minister backs army spokesman’s criticism of Imran Khan
- Khawaja Asif calls the military’s response to Khan’s recent remarks ‘measured’
- He accuses Khan’s PTI party of ‘changing its identity’ by siding against Pakistan
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif on Saturday defended a scathing news conference by the military’s spokesman a day earlier, in which the latter accused former prime minister Imran Khan of promoting an anti-state narrative that he said had become a national security threat.
Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, who heads the military’s media wing as director general of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), addressed journalists on Friday in response to Khan’s latest social media post accusing Chief of Defense Forces Field Marshal Asim Munir of being responsible for “the complete collapse of the constitution and rule of law in Pakistan.”
During the briefing, Chaudhry described the incarcerated former premier as a “narcissist” and a “mentally ill individual,” though he said it up to the government to determine how it wanted to deal with him.
Asked about the military’s viewpoint against Khan and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, Asif told reporters in the city of Sialkot the former premier had long used harsh language against state institutions and political opponents.
“When this kind of language is used for individuals as well as for institutions, then a reaction is a natural outcome,” he said. “The same thing is happening on the Twitter accounts being run in his [Khan’s] name. If the DG ISPR has given any reaction to it, then I believe it was a very measured reaction.”
The minister said Khan and PTI leaders had continued to target the army despite the sacrifices made by soldiers in the fight against militancy and during the four-day conflict with India in May.
He said PTI should recognize those sacrifices by supporting “our soldiers and martyrs” rather than “the terrorists.”
“Imran Khan speaks on every issue. Why did he not speak [in favor of the military] during the war [with India]?” Asif said. “Even during the war he kept targeting the military leadership. He continued to use inappropriate language for them.”
“People whose conduct is like this, whose language does not spare even the martyrs, how can they say ... that the DG ISPR should not say this or should not say that?” he continued. “He absolutely should.”
Asif added that Khan and his party had “changed their identity,” adding they were no longer standing with Pakistan.
PTI has not officially responded to his comments yet.
