RAWALPINDI, May 8, 2023: The army Monday came down hard on Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan for his “irresponsible and baseless allegations” against a senior military officer, who is currently serving in the armed forces.
“[The] chairman PTI has levelled highly irresponsible and baseless allegations against a serving senior military officer without any evidence,” Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director-General Major General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said in a statement, as Khan continues his tirade against the establishment.
The PTI chief has claimed that the senior military officer, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah were behind the assassination attempt on him on November 3, 2022, but provided no evidence to authorities so far, while all the people accused have rejected the allegations.
“These fabricated and malicious allegations are extremely unfortunate, deplorable and unacceptable,” the top military spokesperson said.
Senior analyst Shahzeb Khanzada said although what happened with the deposed prime minister in November was a tragedy, his track record forces one to believe that he might be targeting people to bolster his political support, with anchorperson Muneeb Farooq backing his analysis.
Khan has also blamed former army chief General (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa for his government’s ouster in April last year, but has still not been able to prove it.
The military’s spokesperson, in the statement, also noted that a pattern has been witnessed over the last year, wherein, the army personnel are targetted for one’s political motives.
“This has been a consistent pattern for [the] last one year wherein military and intelligence agencies officials are targeted with insinuations and sensational propaganda for the furtherance of political objectives.”
The DG ISPR added that politicos should refrain from making baseless allegations and warned that if such a trend were to continue, the army had the right to take legal action.
“We ask the political leader concerned to make recourse to legal avenues and stop making false allegations. The institution reserves the right to take legal course of action against patently false and malafide statements and propaganda.”