ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and former President Asif Zardari slammed Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Sunday for levelling baseless allegations against a military officer, calling it a “actual attack on the Pakistan Army.”
In separate statements, the two leaders condemned the levelling of allegations for “petty political gains” and accused the former prime minister of “crossing all limits” in attempting to defame institutions.
“Imran Niazi’s act of routinely maligning and threatening the Pakistan Army and Intelligence Agency for the sake of petty political gains is highly condemnable,” Prime Minister Shehbaz said in a tweet.
“His levelling of allegations without any proof against Gen Faisal Naseer and officers of our Intelligence Agency cannot be allowed and will not be tolerated,” the prime minister added on the microblogging website.
The prime minister’s tweet followed Zardari’s statement, in which he also chastised Imran for repeatedly levelling allegations against Maj-Gen Faisal Naseer, claiming that allegations against army officials were an attack on the army.
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Attacks on the military, according to Zardari, will not be tolerated. “The allegations against the brave and distinguished officers of the Pakistan Army, including Maj-Gen Faisal, are actually an attack on the institution with which the whole of Pakistan stands,” he said.
“This is the country where we all have to be buried; we will not allow one person to play with our values and our country,” he added. “A person is bent on destroying my ancestors, my children and my country, which we will not allow.”
Calling Imran a “foreign agent” and predicting his downfall, Zardari said that “a person is fooling his innocent workers” with lies and deceit, adding: “I see the downfall of this person.”
“Enough is enough,” Zardari said, referring to Imran’s speech on Saturday. “Especially, after listening to the ‘foreign agent’ s speech yesterday, no patriot can even think of following him.”
He then said that “one person has crossed all limits to defame institutions, which will not be tolerated anymore,” the former president said. “The attempt to discredit institutions has exposed the true face of that man.”
Following an assassination attempt on Imran, a relative of the PTI chairman filed a FIR against Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, and Maj-Gen Faisal Naseer.
Imran had been shot in the leg during the attack in Wazirabad. Following the attack, PTI leader Asad Umar stated in a video statement that the party chairman had named three suspects.
