File photo. Aamir Qureshi—AFP
The military’s media wing on Monday slammed Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan for his “irresponsible and baseless allegations” against a serving senior military officer and urged him to utilize legal avenues if he had any evidence of his claims.
“Chairman PTI has levelled highly irresponsible and baseless allegations against a serving senior military officer without any evidence,” read a statement issued by Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director-General Maj. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry that directly called out the former prime minister over his ongoing allegations of the military spearheading efforts to assassinate him.
While Khan has repeatedly hit out at the Army since his ouster from the Prime Minister’s Office last April, he had shied from specifically naming any serving military officer until last week. Addressing a rally in Lahore, he pointed the finger at Maj. Gen. Faisal Naseer, an official of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) he has previously described as “Dirty Harry,” accusing him of colluding with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah for an assassination attempt on Nov. 3, 2022. However, he has yet to provide any evidence of these allegations, with all named parties roundly rejecting his accusations.
“These fabricated and malicious allegations are extremely unfortunate, deplorable and unacceptable,” read the military’s statement. “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,” it said. “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 malafide statements and propaganda,” it warned.
Prior to the statement being issued, both Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Pakistan Peoples Party Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari had condemned the PTI chief’s tirade against the senior military officer. Responding to Sharif on Twitter, Khan had questioned whether “officers were above the law.” Claiming he had been targeted for assassination twice—another contested assertion—the PTI chief had asked Sharif whether he had the right to nominate the individuals he deemed responsible for the attempts. “Why was I denied my legal and constitutional right to register an FIR?” he questioned.
“Does [Shehbaz Sharif] tweet mean military officers are above the law or that they cannot commit a crime?” he continued, questioning how allegations against a specific person could be perceived to be maligning an entire institution.
Reacting to the ISPR release, PTI Senior Vice-President Chaudhry Fawad Hussain described it as “shocking” and questioned why Khan’s belief in the involvement of an officer in the attack on him could not be set aside through an “independent and transparent” investigation. “With such a press release, you are telling that you are above the law in Pakistan. Such behavior is destructive for nations,” he added.