ISLAMABAD – Pakistan on Friday rejected the latest report of The Economistthat said why Imran Khan is unlikely to make life better for Pakistanis andtermed it below objective and civilized journalistic norms that readersexpect from the newspaper.
A clarification issued by a high official of the Ministry of Informationand Broadcasting said the fact that Imran Khan is equally popular among“urban and often secular middle classes” in Pakistan as well as “ruralconservatives” is so painful and unpalatable to The Economist that it goesto any extent to malign the Prime Minister of Pakistan.
Using a quote containing swear words about Mr Khan fell below the objectiveand civilized joumalistic norms that readers expect from a publication likeThe Economist.
The clarification said that equally unpalatable to the magazine isPakistan’s nuclear weapons, the success of its armed forces in the waragainst terrorism, its defiant posture to the regional bully and the roleof Pakistan’s army in protecting and promoting the national interest.
A particular brand of writers has been criticizing the army for many yearsfor allegedly not being on the same page as the civilian leadership, itsaid and added that the latest addition of the charge-sheet of thismagazine is the Pak Army’s role in protecting the route of the ChinaPakistan Economic Corridor.
“None else but The Economist portrays our generals as “handsomely…makingout from CPEC”.
Read Top Stories
The same generals would be good enough for you only if Pakistan abandonedCPEC, accepted all deals from across the border, downgraded its nucleardeterrent and defined its national security parameters in the light ofsermons from a few fugitives in self-exile,” it added.
The clarification further said that this is not going to happen.
It is for the people of Pakistan and its institutions to decide which pathto tread. Their sole prerogative is to define and defend what they perceiveto be their national interest, it said.
