By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The military on Tuesday set strict conditions for any future talks with the party of former prime minister Imran Khan, saying it must apologise for past actions and renounce its ‘politics of anarchy’.
The statement from Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Maj-Gen Ahmed Sharif comes two days before the anniversary of May 9 violence that saw attacks on military installations following a brief arrest of Khan corruption cases and a severe state crackdown on his Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaf party.
“If some political mindset, leader or clique attacks its own army, causes rifts between the army and its people, insults the nation’s martyrs and issues threats and hatches propaganda, then there can be no dialogue with them,” General Sharif said.
“There is only one way back for such political anarchists that it (PTI) asks for an earnest pardon in front of the nation and promises that it will forgo politics of hate and adopt constructive [style of] politics.”
“In any case, such dialogue should take place between political parties. It is not appropriate for the army to be involved.”
The military has long been at odds with Khan, who was ousted as prime minister in 2022 and was arrested last year in multiple cases from corruption to espionage and illegal marriage.
“If, in any country, an attack is launched on its army, symbols of its martyrs are insulted, its founder’s house is set on fire, hatred is created between its army and public, and if the people behind it are not brought to justice, then there is a question mark on that country’s justice system.”
“We believe that if we have to maintain trust in the justice system of Pakistan, then May 9 perpetrators — both the perpetrators and those commanding them — must be sentenced according to the Constitution and the law.”
Sharif also said that a judicial commission should be formed to investigate the events of last May 9.
“Fine, we are ready, make a judicial commission but if you have to, then go to the root of this entire incident. The judicial commission should also determine what the goals of the 2014 dharna (sit-in) were and how the Parliament was attacked. It should also look into the PTV attack and that how people were encouraged to stand against the state, indulge in civil disobedience and burn utility bills.”
The commission, the army spokesperson said, should also investigate “how Islamabad was attacked in 2016 with KP’s federal resources, and then again in 2022.”
“It must also see how letters were written to the International Monetary Fund and lobbying was conducted abroad so that Pakistan would not be given loans and fall into a state of default.”
The DG ISPR said that the judicial body, if formed, should probe the source and target of the funding of such campaigns as well as those who spread hate against state institutions on social media.
Khan’s party spokesperson Raoof Hasan termed the military presser as being “full of contradictions”.
“We challenge them on all the things he said to bring evidence for it before the nation and the easiest way for that … is to institute an independent transparent judicial inquiry to determine the culprits and planners of the events on May 9,” Hasan told a news conference.
“They say that they are ready to make such a judicial commission, but the judicial commission will talk about the 2014 sit-in, it would also talk about the attack on the Parliament etc and we agree to it,” he said, adding that the commission should also probe the cipher case, the PTI government’s ouster, the attempted assassination on Khan, audio leaks and the alleged rigging in the February 8 elections.
“These are all the things that we have demanded and if DG ISPR wants to form a judicial commission with two of his conditions then we would support them as there is no other way to ascertain who committed the crimes and why and who was supporting them.”
Hasan said the commission should be independent and not “subservient to the military”.
Meanwhile, General Sharif also repeated Islamabad’s accusations that militants were launching attacks on Pakistan from Afghanistan and said a recent attack in which five Chinese nationals were killed was also planned in the neighboring country.
A suicide bomber rammed a vehicle into a convoy of Chinese engineers working on a hydropower project at Dasu in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, killing five Chinese nationals and their Pakistani driver on Mar. 26.
“The attack [against the Chinese engineers] was planned in Afghanistan,” he said. “The explosives-laden vehicle used in the attack was also prepared in Afghanistan and sent to Pakistan. The attacker was also an Afghan national. When the network [that carried out the attack] was exposed, its central characters like Adil Shahbaz, Zahid Qureshi, Nazir Hussain and another one of their companions were arrested.”
The military spokesman said Pakistan had taken up the issue of militant violence with Afghan authorities, who were unhelpful.
“There is solid evidence of TTP terrorists using Afghan soil to launch attacks in Pakistan,” he added.
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