Cannot call army chief traitor when …: ISI chief slams Imran Khan
Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan was called out by the chief of the country’s top spy agency, ISI, for calling the army chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, a “traitor” after Khan met him at night.
In a direct jibe at Khan, the Director General of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), Lt Gen Nadeem Anjum, said: “If the commander-in-chief is a traitor, then why did you meet him in hiding? Meeting [him] is your right but it cannot be possible that you meet at night and call [him] a traitor in the day,” Lt Gen Anjum said, reported Geo News.
“Your government offered an extension to the army chief for an indefinite period during his term if he agreed to fail the no-trust motion. But General Bajwa turned down the offer,” Lt Gen Anjum said in an all-guns-blazing attack on Khan. If the commander-in-chief is a traitor, “why was he praised endlessly in the recent past?” he sought to know.
“If the army chief is a traitor in your eyes, why did you want to give an extension to his term? Why do you still meet him secretly?” he asked.
The military was called “neutral and an animal” as they had committed treason by refusing to be part of an “illegal” decision, he added. The refusal to do the “illegal job” was not the decision of a single person or army chief but of the entire institution, he further clarified.
The people who were part of the decision included those who would be leading the army for the next 15 to 20 years, he asserted.
The ISI chief said that the military has been under a lot of pressure since March, when Imran Khan was ousted from office by a confidence vote, but decided to limit itself to its constitutional role.
General Bajwa could have spent the last six months of his term in peace but he took the decision in favour of the country and institution, Lt Gen Anjum said, defending the army chief.
The DG ISI said that he was forced to make a public statement when he saw that the lies being spread conveniently are becoming acceptable.
“I broke the silence when I saw that there was a risk of ‘fitna, fasad’ in the country just because lies were not being declared as lies,” he said.
