ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leader Asad Umar on Saturday pressed on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to take a clear stance and appropriate action in wake of the allegations levelled by Senator Mushahidullah Khan against former Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lt Gen Zaheerul Islam Abbasi.
In an interview to BBC Urdu, Mushahidullah, Minister for Climate Change, had alleged that the “former head of ISI had devised a conspiracy to remove the elected government.” The senator's allegations were denied by both the government and military hours after the interview went live.
PTI's Asad Umar took to twitter to term the denial by the government insufficient, saying if the allegations levelled by Mushahidullah proved to be true, the former DG ISI and his accomplices should be tried for "planning and encouraging an act of treason."
| Umar said if the accusations against the former ISI chief turned out to be false, Mushahidullah should be sacked from his job as the minister and ousted from the party. |
In another tweet, Umar said similar allegations had been earlier levelled against DG ISI by the Defence Minister Khwaja Asif and hence it was time this trend was put to rest.
In his interview to the BBC, one year after the two marches set forth from Lahore towards Islamabad, the minister claimed that the plan made by the then head of ISI General Zaheerul Islam was aimed at creating unrest and chaos.Mushahidullah in his interview to BBC highlighted that the plan to overthrow the government was made when the two marches — the ‘Azadi March’ by PTI and the Inqilab March by Pakistan Awami Tehreek — entered Islamabad in August 2014.The PTI leader then stressed that the prime minister could not continue the "good cop bad cop drama" and said he should clear his stance by taking action against his ministers for levelling false allegations if he disagrees with them.
“Telephone discussions of the former intelligence head have been recorded in which he was giving directions on how to create chaos and take over the PM’s house,” Senator Mushahidullah claimed in the interview.
He then added that these telephone conversations were recorded by the civil intelligence agency, the Intelligence Bureau (IB), which reports to the interior ministry.
“The conspiracy was not only to target the civil government led by Nawaz Sharif but it was even against the army chief,” he said, “The action plan was to create a deep rift between the PM and the army chief so that the prime minister may take action against Gen Raheel Sharif and then some people would come into action.”
Within hours of Mushahidullah's remarks having hit the airwaves of the news channels, the Prime Minister's Secretariat (PMS) and then the ISPR, the military’s media wing, issued statement denying the existence of the conspiracy in statements that snubbed the minister as well as others.
The statement from the Prime Minister's Secretariat also added that Senator Mushahidullah had been asked to clarify his position over his statement.
After that the minister as well as the information minister spoke to television channels to deny the interview. Senator Mushahidullah went so far to say that he simply repeated rumours he had heard from here and there.