Islamabad, Pakistan: Inter-Service Public Relations (ISPR) of the Pakistan Armed Forces has said that dragging the Army into political discourse is unlawful and unethical.
In a statement issued by the ISPR here on Sunday, it is stated as below:
Recently there have been intensified and deliberate attempts to drag Pakistan Armed Forces and their leadership into ongoing political discourse in the country. These attempts are manifest through direct, insinuated, or nuanced references to the Armed Forces as well as their senior leadership, made by some political leaders, a few journalists, and analysts on public forums and various communication platforms including social media.
This practice of unsubstantiated, defamatory, and provocative statements /remarks is extremely damaging. Pakistan Armed Forces take strong exception to such unlawful and unethical practices and expect all to abide by the law and keep the Armed Forces out of political discourse in the best interest of the country.
Islamabad Office adds:
It may be mentioned that the PTI leadership constantly accuses Pakistan Army of political engineering that resulted in voting out of former prime minister Imran Khan who lost the majority in the National Assembly in April and the House elected a new Leader of the House—the prime minister Shahbaz Sharif with 174 votes.
The latest interview of former Prime Minister Imran Khan and statements of PTI leaders are creating confusion about what was the real reason behind voting out Imran Khan from his office. Truthfully, he was voted out when he lost a majority in the house and 174 members of the National Assembly voted against him.
Actually, he was instigating opposition for so long to move a vote of no confidence against him, taunting opposition that it had no guts and support to vote him (Imran) out of the Prime Minister’s Office. When it happened, he claimed that it is a conspiracy against Pakistan hatched by the United States because he wanted an independent foreign policy.
He came up with a theory rather than a narrative that the US wrote a threatening letter to Pakistan but his claims were rejected twice by intelligence agencies of Pakistan and the Pakistan Army categorically said that there was no conspiracy or no threatening letter to Pakistan from the United States.
Now former PTI federal Minister Shirin Mazari directly and categorically accused the chief of the Pakistan Army Gen Bajwa of having meetings with US authorities without the consent of the then Prime Minister Imran Khan. In a technical and calculated way, the PTI has bracketed Pakistan Army with the United States for hatching a conspiracy against Imran Khan.
