[ad_1]
ISLAMABAD, May 8 (PTI) — Pakistan’s military on Monday slammed Imran Khan for making “extremely irresponsible and baseless” allegations against a serving ISI officer without any evidence as the powerful military A fresh war of words has broken out between Fang and the former prime minister.
In a strongly worded statement, the Inter-Services Public Relations Service (ISPR) – the military’s media arm – also said Khan’s “fabricated and malicious allegations are extremely unfortunate, regrettable and unacceptable.”
“This has been a consistent pattern over the past year, with officials from the military and intelligence agencies being the target of innuendo and sensationalist propaganda against political targets,” it said.
It came two days after the 70-year-old former cricketer-turned-politician accused General Faisal Naseer of the spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of plotting his murder at a rally on Saturday.
Read also | Ed Sheeran shares he was snubbed at coronation concert; singer claims he never got an invite.
ISPR said: “We ask the political leaders concerned to take legal action and stop making false allegations. The agency reserves the right to take legal action against statements and propaganda that are manifestly false and malicious.”
Earlier, Prime Minister Sheikh Baz Sharif accused the Pakistani Justice Instigation (PTI) chief of “slandering and threatening” the military and intelligence agencies.
“Imran Nyazi is highly condemned for his frequent defamation and threats against the Pakistani Army and Intelligence for petty political gain. He has accused General Faisal Nasir and our Intelligence without any evidence Allegations by officials will not be allowed and will not be tolerated,” he tweeted on Sunday.
Sharif blasted Khan for claiming that ISI’s Major General Nasser allegedly tried twice to kill him and that he was also involved in the brutal murder of senior journalist Arshad Sharif.
Arshad Sharif, a former critic of the military, was shot dead by police in Kenya last October, days after he fled the country, citing threats to his life by security agencies. The killing of Arshad Sharif sparked outrage in Pakistan.
Kenyan police said in a preliminary report that the 49-year-old man was shot dead in a moving vehicle after misidentifying him.
In November, Khan had accused General Nasir of being shot three times in the leg in an attempted assassination attempt on him in Wazirabad, Punjab province, along with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Home Minister Ranathanullah.
“As someone who has been assassinated twice in the past few months, dare I ask the SS (Shehbaz Sharif) the following questions,” Khan asked, before raising several key questions about the role of army officials.
Khan asked him if, as a citizen, he had the right to nominate those “whom I believe to be responsible for the assassination of me?” and then questioned, “Why am I denied the legal and constitutional right to register with the FIR?”
He then raised the crucial question of whether anyone would be called up from the military if a violation of the law was involved. “Does the SS (Shehbaz Sharif) tweet mean that officers are above the law, or that they cannot commit crimes? How can the institution be defamed if we charge one of them with a crime?” Khan asked.
He also questioned who had enough power to undermine the Wazirabad joint investigation team under his PTI government in Punjab.
Khan was ousted in April after losing a no-confidence vote in his leadership, which he claimed was part of a US-led plot against him because of his independence of foreign policy decisions on Russia, China and Afghanistan .
Khan, who came to power in 2018, is the only Pakistani prime minister to be ousted in a vote of no confidence in parliament.
He has since criticized the army for claiming he could not have been removed without the nod of a powerful institution, an allegation the army denies.
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
share now
[ad_2]
Source link