Imran requested the president to launch an investigation into the former COAS Bajwa.
According to the chairman of the PTI, the former army chief disobeyed his oath by meddling in politics, manipulating NAB, and other activities.
ISLAMABAD: Imran Khan, a former prime minister, has requested President Dr. Arif Alvi to launch a probe into allegations that Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa violated his oath of office by participating in politics and having influence over the nation’s anti-graft agency, among other things.
The ex-premier and head of PTI requested in a letter to the president on February 14 that the president, who is the supreme commander of the armed forces, launch an investigation into the ex-military czar for admitting that he thought the ex-premier was “dangerous for the country” and had taped some of his private conversations.
The PTI leader made the implication that the revelations made in both pieces make it apparent that the former army commander breached his oath and that an investigation might corroborate the same while citing a column by journalist Javed Chaudhry and a video log of TV host Aftab Iqbal.
Imran questioned Gen. Bajwa’s management of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and asserted that “civilian official independent institutions do not come under military supervision” and that “the army itself is a department under the Ministry of Defence.”
The then-opposition claimed that NAB engaged in political victimisation under the cover of “accountability,” but the former prime minister now claims that the army chief was reportedly in charge of NAB. Also, the NAB’s performance was proudly credited to the PTI government in 2020 as it was featured in its two-year performance report.
Imran has written to the president to tell him of some “extremely distressing evidence” that has recently been known, according to which it is obvious that Gen. Bajwa broke his oath of office frequently while serving as COAS. Imran said, “I would want you as supreme commander of the armed forces to launch a swift inquiry against him in light of the infractions outlined below.
Imran continued by claiming that Bajwa had revealed to journalist Javed Chaudhry that “we” (and it was crucial to establish who the “we” was in reference to) believed Imran to be a risk to the nation if he kept holding onto power.
Imran questioned who had the authority to judge that an elected PM was allegedly a “threat to the country if he continued to stay in office.” He continued, “Taking such a right on himself is in plain breach of his oath as given in Third Schedule Article 244 of the constitution. Only the people, through elections, may determine who they want to elect as prime minister.
Regardless of the validity of Bajwa’s statements in this instance, Imran argued that he had also acknowledged that “he managed to get the NAB case against Shaukat Tarin dismissed, demonstrating that NAB was under his influence.” The army is a department under the defence ministry, and civilian official independent institutions do not come under the supervision of the military, therefore Imran once more emphasised that this is a clear violation of the constitutional pledge.
Additionally, Imran said in his reference to Aftab Iqbal’s vlog that Gen. Bajwa had previously disclosed to Iqbal that he had tapes of conversations between the former prime minister Imran Khan and himself. Imran asked the president, “The question is why and under what authority was Gen Bajwa recording confidential conversations? This is a significant violation of his oath and a violation of fundamental human rights.”
Also, General Bajwa publicly disobeyed the then-policy government’s of remaining neutral in the Russia-Ukraine war, according to Imran, which was “another severe violation of his oath.” Imran recalled that Bajwa had performed it during the Islamabad Security Conference, an international gathering that took place on April 2, 2022.
Imran emphasised that the government’s policy was decided upon via a consensus-building process including all relevant parties, including the ministry of foreign affairs and former diplomats with relevant experience and subject-matter experts.
Last but not least, Imran argued that Chapter II of the Constitution clearly mentions Articles 243 (Command of Military Forces) and 244 in describing the mandate of the armed forces (Oath of Armed Forces).
In light of this, he stated, “It is your constitutional obligation as President and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces to take prompt action and launch an inquiry to ascertain whether such severe violations of the Constitution and oath of office under the Constitution have taken place.”
Despite the fact that the letter was written on February 14, a representative from the presidency claimed that no action has yet been taken and that details will be released to the media when something does.
