Dawn Leaks: Government to either withdraw or unofficially discard PM notification
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ISLAMABAD: Federal government has decided in a meeting held in Raiwind under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to do the damage control on the issue of the Dawn Leake report notification.
Federal government is considering to either formally withdraw the contentious notification or to unofficially discard it and issue a separate ‘comprehensive’ notification through the interior ministry, sources privy to developments said.
They added that the prime minister was scheduled to fly back to Islamabad on Sunday night to hold further consultations with his legal wizards before resuming official business today (Monday).
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Fawad Hassan Fawad – whose signature was on the notification in question – and Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his son Hamza Shehbaz were part of the low-key consultative huddle in Lahore.
Ruling party sources close to Nawaz said Nisar was unhappy with the issuance of the notification by the Prime Minister’s Office. They said the interior minister, who was directly dealing with the Dawn Leaks issue, felt he was ‘bypassed’ by the premier’s secretary to issue the notification.
According to sources, the premier’s aides told him that the security establishment’s disappointment over the notification stemmed mainly from the fact that it was issued by Fawad, whose own role is being questioned in the Dawn leaks episode.
“An individual, who is one of the suspects in this matter, is issuing a notification to punish other suspects. What a contradiction!” remarked a Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz lawmaker who enjoys good terms with military authorities on condition of anonymity.
In addition to this, the notification stated that the prime minister was ‘pleased to approve’ only a single paragraph – paragraph 18 – instead of the entire Dawn Leaks report. “This did not go down well with the security brass and explains why the notification was termed incomplete by the military,” the PML-N lawmaker said.
“Security bosses waited for months for something that turned out to be a farce. The notification added insult to injury,” he added.
Sources said the interior minister’s statement made at the press conference in Karachi on Saturday that the “government did not issue any notification” was part of damage control measures, indicating the government’s strategy to unofficially discard the notification by publicly denouncing it.
