Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan Monday demandedPresident Dr Arif Alvi take steps to stop deviation from the Constitutionand law in the country, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.
In a letter, Imran Khan requested the president to initiate the process ofdefining the limits of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), themilitary’s media wing.
Imran also sought President Alvi’s intervention over pressers held by DGISPR and DG ISI in which they levelled allegations against the PTI chief.
In the letter, Imran Khan wrote: “Ever since the removal of my PTIgovernment, as the nation began rising to my call for Haqeeqi Azadi, wehave 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 tome and I was informed of a plot to assassinate me having been hatched by PMShehbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and Maj-General Faisal DGCISI.” He further wrote “The plot was operationalised earlier this weekduring our long march but Allah has saved me and the assassination attemptfailed.”
“However, my appeal to you today is not just as the Head of the State ofPakistan but also as the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces underArticle 243(2) of our Constitution to take note of the following seriouswrongdoings that undermine Pakistan’s national security and to institute aninquiry under your leadership to identify the guilty and hold themaccountable:
1. A breach of the Official Secrets Act occurred when confidentialconversation between myself as PM, the COAS and the DG ISI on a supposedlysecure line was “leaked to the media. This raises a very serious questionas to who or what organisation was involved in doing a clearly illegalwiretap of the PM’s secure phone line? This is a breach of nationalsecurity at the highest level.
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2. The issue of the Cipher sent by our ambassador to the US in which the USofficial conveyed a direct threat of regime change to our envoy whoreported the same in quotes as was conveyed to him. The NSC meeting held onthis issue during my tenure as PM clearly decided this was an unacceptableintrusion into our internal matters and the NSC decided on a demarche to beissued MOFA to the US envoy in Islamabad. This NSC decision as Minutes wasreaffirmed 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 DGISI and the DXG ISPR that had the former contradicting the decision made bythe NSC under two governments and stating that the message of the USgovernment conveyed by our envoy in Washington DC in the Cipher was not anunacceptable intrusion into our internal affairs but simply a case of“misconduct”. The question that needs to be examined is how two militarybureaucrats can publicly contradict a decision of the NSC? This also raisesthe serious issue of these military bureaucrats deliberately trying tocreate a false narrative.
Two related questions that should also be examined are: i) how the head ofPakistan’s premier intelligence agency can do a public press conference;ii) how can two military bureaucrats do a highly political press conferencetargeting the leader of the largest and perhaps the only federal politicalparty in Pakistan today? 3. The parameters of a military informationorganisation such as the ISPR also need to be clearly defined and limitedto information relating to defence and military issues.
As Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces I call on you to initiate thedrawing up of these clear operational lines for the ISPR. Mr President, youare the Head of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and you must protect itsdemocracy and its Constitution. No person or State institution can be abovethe law of the land. We have been seeing a massive abuse of citizens at thehands of rogue elements within State organisations, including custodialtorture and abductions all carried out with impunity. You hold the highestOffice of State and I am requesting you to act now to stop the abuse ofpower and violations of our laws and of the Constitution, which ensures thefundamental rights of every citizen.”
