The military says the “malicious allegations” fit the pattern of Khan targeting military and intel officials with “insinuations and sensational propaganda” to advance his political agenda.
By Naveed Naqvi
RAWALPINDI: The Pakistani military Monday took serious exception to former prime minister Imran Khan’s “fabricated and malicious” allegations against a serving 2-star, threatening him with legal action.
The chairman of his own Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) “has levelled highly irresponsible and baseless allegations against a serving senior military officer without any evidence”, the military’s Public Relations wing said in a statement.
The Inter-Service Public Relations (ISPR) statement said: “These fabricated and malicious allegations are extremely unfortunate, deplorable and unacceptable.
“This has been a consistent pattern for last one year wherein military and intelligence agencies officials are targeted with insinuations and sensational propaganda for the furtherance of political objectives.
“We ask the political leader concerned to make a recourse to legal avenues and stop making false allegations. The institution reserves the right to take legal course of action against patently false and mala fide statements and propaganda.”
Khan, who was ousted from power in April 2022 in a constitutionally sacrosanct parliamentary vote of no confidence, has repeatedly claimed he was booted by the military.
The Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) that replaced Khan in power asserts it rose to power through a parliamentary process, and the only role played by the military was to drop the years-long policy of maintaining Khan in power by hook or crook.
Several parliamentary leaders have corroborated this claim by conceding that the military used to have a finger in the political pie during and before Khan’s rise to power, but has forsaken this policy since at least early 2022.
Khan has targeted the military with a hard-hitting albeit intermittent smear campaign even since his exit from the prime minister’s office. He has occasionally accused serving military officers of hatching various conspiracies against him, including sundry plots to have him assassinated.
It is unusual for the military to respond to a politician’s allegations, but equally, a politician accusing a serving military officers of wrongdoing is unheard of.
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