“PTI’s vile smear campaign” against COAS is criticized by the Prime Minister of Pakistan while he is abroad.
Encourages Pakistanis living abroad to dissociate themselves from what it calls a “foreign-funded conspiracy against institutions.”
The Pakistani Army and its Chief of Army Staff (COAS), General Asim Munir, are the targets of a “vicious” conspiracy, which the Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif called for the strongest possible censure.
PM Shehbaz described the “smear campaign” against the army commander a “continuation” of a conspiracy against the military, which he claimed was “unacceptable”.
PM Shehbaz emphasised the need to reject his political rival’s “agenda” while accusing former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Imran Khan of “damaging the country and weakening our armed services and their leadership”.
The premier urged overseas patriotic Pakistanis to speak out against the foreign-funded campaign and warned them away from the “poisonous politics” in which they were being used as pawns.
He encouraged them “not be part of this plot” whereby Imran, he alleged, “is pulling state institutions and their leaders in his dirty politics and undermining the constitution”.
The prime minister also gave Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah instructions to use “an iron hand” against the “miscreants running this despicable campaign” in the nation.
“Strict legal action should be taken against those who encourage turmoil, rioting and rebellion in Pakistan,” he added adding that “to undermine the country’s first army chief to be nominated on merit could only be the aim of the enemies of the country”.
He declared, “Together against evildoers, the nation stands with its institutions.”
sound leak
A second tweet from PM Shehbaz criticised the “abusive language” allegedly used by former chief justice Saqib Nisar and PTI attorney Khwaja Tariq Rahim against PML-N Chief Organiser Maryam Nawaz in an audio leak.
He emphasised that “society, especially women, should forcefully condemn this discourse and abusive thinking towards women,” adding that “only collective condemnation can stop this negative thinking in the society.
An audio tape that supposedly showed Nisar and Tariq criticising Maryam Nawaz earlier today circulated on social media.
Tariq is said to have told Nisar to “give the woman that speaks so much a befitting reaction” or “strike her somehow” in the video. Nisar is reported to have said, “I have the guts to bear it out, but when the necessity arises, I will ask you to do something explosive on the side,” in response.
While the veracity of the audio clip could not be verified, Nisar had earlier this month asserted that his WhatsApp account had been compromised and that he believed his data was being exploited to distort the truth for political ends.
