Pakistani military warns ex-PM Khan of ‘baseless allegations’

[ad_1]

Pakistan’s military has warned former prime minister Imran Khan of ‘baseless allegations’ against senior officers

Pakistan’s military has warned former prime minister Imran Khan of “baseless allegations” after it again accused a senior officer of plotting to kill him.

The rebuke on Monday night underscored how badly Khan’s relationship has deteriorated with the mighty military, which backed his rise to power in 2018 but withdrew support ahead of a parliamentary vote of no confidence that ousted him last year .

Pakistan is deeply mired in an economic and political crisis, with Khan pressing the struggling coalition government for a snap election.

At a weekend rally in Lahore, Khan repeated that a senior intelligence officer, Major General Faisal Naseer, had been involved in an assassination attempt last year in which he received a bullet in the leg.

The Army’s Inter-Service Public Relations (ISPR) wing said in a statement that “this fabricated and malicious allegation is extremely unfortunate, deplorable and unacceptable.”

“It has been a consistent pattern over the past year where military and intelligence agency officials are targeted with innuendo and sensational propaganda in pursuit of political goals,” he said.

Criticism of the military establishment is rare in Pakistan, where military leaders wield significant influence over domestic and foreign policy and have long been accused of interfering in the rise and fall of governments.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif – who Khan also alleged was involved in the assassination plot – weighed in on Twitter.

“His allegations without any evidence against General Faisal Naseer and the officers of our intelligence agency cannot be allowed and will not be tolerated,” he said.

– Rejects the conclusions –

The Pakistani government said the assassination attempt was the work of a lone gunman, who is currently in custody and who confessed in a video controversially leaked to the media.

Khan rejects those findings and insists authorities have refused to go along with his attempts to file a so-called first information report (FIR) with police identifying the real culprits.

The story continues

Khan repeated his allegations in a video statement released on Tuesday, saying “there is no reason for me to fabricate the facts.”

The ISPR said it reserves the right to “take legal action against manifestly false and dishonest statements and propaganda”.

Khan has faced dozens of charges against him since being ousted – a tactic analysts say successive Pakistani governments have used to silence opponents.

He is due to appear in court again on Tuesday.

Pakistan’s military, the sixth largest in the world, wields undue influence over the country.

He has staged at least three coups since the country gained independence in 1947 and ruled for more than three decades.

Ahead of the general election in October, a myriad of petitions and appeals are pending in the courts for early voting for some provincial assemblies, which are usually held at the same time.

Pakistan’s economy has also been pushed to the brink of collapse by years of financial mismanagement, exacerbated by a global energy crisis and devastating floods that submerged a third of the country in 2022.

The government is battling to relaunch the next tranche of a $6.5 billion loan deal struck with the International Monetary Fund in 2019.

The IMF is demanding tougher reforms, including tax hikes and subsidy cuts, which could irritate voters ahead of an election.

Pakistan must also obtain guarantees of bilateral support from friendly countries to release the tranche, with China, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates having already pledged loans.

bur-fox/ecl/dhw/pbt

[ad_2]