Pakistan army says BBC story linking PM exit to his intent to remove army chief ‘pack of lies’
Says it is taking up matter with international news organisation
Islamabad: Pakistan Army’s public relations wing the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) on Sunday slammed a story published on BBC Urdu website as baseless and ‘a pack of lies’. The story was about the events that took place hours before the passage of the no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan and what caused his exit.
The military’s media affairs said the story was part of an organised disinformation campaign “violating basic journalistic norms”.
In the article, BBC said at a time when the country was looking towards the Parliament House, where long debates were taking place as the Speaker was delaying voting on no-confidence motion, the activity shifted to the PM House once the session had been adjourned for iftar.
During that break, according to the report, Khan had convened an emergency meeting of his cabinet members, the Speaker, his deputy and several bureaucrats along with legal and political advisers and it was decided that the “threat letter” would be shown to a few important people.
The story went on to say that while the meeting chaired by Khan was in progress, two “uninvited guests” arrived at the PM House via helicopter and held a 45-minute private meeting with the prime minister.
The story claims it was not a very pleasant meeting since just an hour prior to that meeting, Khan had given orders to remove one of the senior officials present at the meeting. The implication was that it was Army Chief Gen Qamar Bajwa that the PM had made up his mind to remove.
The story also talked about how the doors of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) were opened late at night to take up a petition and restrain Khan in case he decided to remove Gen Bajwa.
Reacting to the news item published in BBC Urdu, the ISPR called it “typical propaganda” lacking “any credible, authentic and relevant source.”
“There is no truth in the fake story whatsoever and the matter is being taken up with the BBC authorities,” the statement concluded.