Islamabad: In an unusual move, the Pakistan Army has warned that it reserves the right to take legal action against people involved in “peddling malicious allegations and blatant lies” against its leadership.
The Pakistan Army’s tough statement came amid a barrage of criticism directed against the military after former prime minister Imran Khan was ousted from power in April through a vote of no confidence.
The provocation for the latest statement was the social media posts by a senior journalist who claimed the powerful military played a role in the ouster of Khan as Pakistan’s prime minister.
Shaheen Sehbai, a Pakistani-American journalist, in a tweet, claimed that former finance minister Shaukat Tarin was asked by the establishment to “betray” Khan and help the then Opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif to oust the cricketer-turned-politician from power.
According to a statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) on Wednesday, “insinuations made by people on social media quoting the former finance minister Shaukat Tarin is baseless propaganda”.
The media wing of the Pakistani military pointed out that the Tarin himself has rebutted the allegation.
Tarin also categorically denied the news and clarified that he was never asked by anyone in the establishment to leave Khan and join Sharif’s government.
“Peddling malicious allegations and blatant lies against the institution and its leadership to promote vested interests is condemnable and the institution reserves the right to take legal action against those involved,” the army warned.
The powerful Pakistan Army, which has ruled the coup-prone country for more than half of its nearly 75 years of existence, has hitherto wielded considerable power in the matters of security and foreign policy.
Khan, who was ousted from power in April through a no-trust vote, had apparently lost support of the Army after he refused to endorse the appointment of the ISI spy agency chief last year. Khan has repeatedly claimed that he was ousted by a plot hatched by the United States, a charge dismissed by Washington.
PTI