Imran Khan writes to President to take action against senior military officers in capacity of Supreme Commander of Armed Forces
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Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan Monday demanded President Dr Arif Alvi take steps to stop deviation from the Constitution and law in the country, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.
In a letter, Imran Khan requested the president to initiate the process of defining the limits of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military’s media wing.
Imran also sought President Alvi’s intervention over pressers held by DG ISPR and DG ISI in which they levelled allegations against the PTI chief.
In the letter, Imran Khan wrote: “Ever since the removal of my PTI government, as the nation began rising to my call for Haqeeqi Azadi, we have been confronted with an ever-increasing scale of false allegations, harassment, arrests and custodial torture.”
He said: “The interior minister had repeatedly issued death threats to me and I was informed of a plot to assassinate me having been hatched by PM Shehbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and Maj-General Faisal DGC ISI.” He further wrote “The plot was operationalised earlier this week during our long march but Allah has saved me and the assassination attempt failed.”
“However, my appeal to you today is not just as the Head of the State of Pakistan but also as the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces under Article 243(2) of our Constitution to take note of the following serious wrongdoings that undermine Pakistan’s national security and to institute an inquiry under your leadership to identify the guilty and hold them accountable:
1. A breach of the Official Secrets Act occurred when confidential conversation between myself as PM, the COAS and the DG ISI on a supposedly secure line was “leaked to the media. This raises a very serious question as to who or what organisation was involved in doing a clearly illegal wiretap of the PM’s secure phone line? This is a breach of national security at the highest level.
2. The issue of the Cipher sent by our ambassador to the US in which the US official conveyed a direct threat of regime change to our envoy who reported the same in quotes as was conveyed to him. The NSC meeting held on this issue during my tenure as PM clearly decided this was an unacceptable intrusion into our internal matters and the NSC decided on a demarche to be issued MOFA to the US envoy in Islamabad. This NSC decision as Minutes was reaffirmed by the NSC meeting held under the Shahbaz Sharif government.
In view of this, a joint press conference held on 27 October 2022 by the DG ISI and the DXG ISPR that had the former contradicting the decision made by the NSC under two governments and stating that the message of the US government conveyed by our envoy in Washington DC in the Cipher was not an unacceptable intrusion into our internal affairs but simply a case of “misconduct”. The question that needs to be examined is how two military bureaucrats can publicly contradict a decision of the NSC? This also raises the serious issue of these military bureaucrats deliberately trying to create a false narrative.
Two related questions that should also be examined are: i) how the head of Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency can do a public press conference; ii) how can two military bureaucrats do a highly political press conference targeting the leader of the largest and perhaps the only federal political party in Pakistan today? 3. The parameters of a military information organisation such as the ISPR also need to be clearly defined and limited to information relating to defence and military issues.
As Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces I call on you to initiate the drawing up of these clear operational lines for the ISPR. Mr President, you are the Head of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and you must protect its democracy and its Constitution. No person or State institution can be above the law of the land. We have been seeing a massive abuse of citizens at the hands of rogue elements within State organisations, including custodial torture and abductions all carried out with impunity. You hold the highest Office of State and I am requesting you to act now to stop the abuse of power and violations of our laws and of the Constitution, which ensures the fundamental rights of every citizen.”
