Imran Khan seeks probe against Pak’s ex-army
By India Today Web Desk: Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan today asked the country’s President, Arif Alvi, to “institute an immediate inquiry” against General Qamar Javed Bajwa (Retd.) for violating “his oath of office repeatedly” as Pakistan’s army chief, reported Dawn. This is the latest in the long-time hostility between Imran Khan and Gen Bajwa (Retd.). The cracks in their relationship appeared after the PTI government’s ouster in April last year.
Citing Pakistan’s constitution, Khan reminded Alvi that it was his “constitutional duty as President and as Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces to take immediate action and institute an inquiry”.
In his letter, Khan listed four ways in which the former army chief allegedly violated the constitution as he referred to the former army chief’s alleged remarks – published in a column by journalist Javed Chaudhry – as evidence for his claim.The leter was posted by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) leader Shireen Mazari on her Twitter account.Khan, in his letter, said that Gen Bajwa (Retd.) “admitted to journalist Javed Chaudhry that ‘we’ considered Imran Khan dangerous to the country if he continued to stay in power”.
He added that it would be “critical to ascertain” from Gen Bajwa (Retd.) who he referred to as “we”. The former PM asked, “Who gave him the power to decide that an elected prime minister was supposedly a ‘danger to the country if he continued to stay in power’?”
Only the people through elections can decide who they want to elect as the prime minister. Taking such a right on himself is in clear violation of his oath as given in Third Schedule Article 244 of the Constitution,” the PTI chief asserted.Imran then listed Gen Bajwa’s alleged admission that he “managed to get the NAB (National Accountability Bureau) case against Shaukat Tarin dismissed”.
He claimed this revealed that the NAB was under the former army chief’s “control”, which was “again a clear violation of the constitutional oath because the army itself is a department under the Ministry of Defence and civilian official autonomous institutions (NAB) do not come (under) military control”.
Khan also mentioned a YouTube video by journalist Aftab Iqbal and said that according to Iqbal, “Gen Bajwa told him (Iqbal) in conversation that he had tapes of then-PM Imran Khan’s conversations with him.”
Calling it a “serious violation” of the former army chief’s oath as well as of his own fundamental human rights, Khan asked: “The question is why and under what authorisation was Gen Bajwa recording confidential conversations?”
