Former federal minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Shireen Mazari has denied Director General Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major General Babar Iftikhar’s statement that former prime minister Imran Khan had asked the military to help resolve the political crisis, saying that it was in fact the army that sought a meeting through the then defence minister.
“Let me be clear — I am stating on record PM did not call mly for help on “breaking pol deadlock”[sic],” she wrote in a tweet.
The former minister further said that the military sought a meeting with the ex-PM through the then defence minister. “They put forward the 3 proposals of either PM resigning or taking part in VNC or fresh elections!”, she added.
Let me be clear — I am stating on record PM did not call mly for help on "breaking pol deadlock". The mly sought the mtg thru then Def Minister Khattak & they put forward the 3 proposals of either PM resigning or taking part in VNC or fresh elections! #امپورٹڈ_حکومت_نامنظور
— Shireen Mazari (@ShireenMazari1) April 15, 2022
Earlier on Thursday, Major General Babar Iftikhar, while addressing a press conference, said that Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa was asked by former prime minister Imran Khan to intervene and help resolve the political crisis.
“Our political leadership was unfortunately not willing to talk,” he said, adding that the army chief and Director General Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt Gen Nadeem Anjum went to the PM office [on Saturday night] where three scenarios were discussed.
One option, as per the DG ISPR, was to let the no-confidence motion take place as planned. The second and third options were for the PM to resign or retraction of the no-confidence motion and dissolution of assemblies.
General Babar Iftikhar had gone on to claim that these options were not given from the ‘establishment’.
But PTI leader Shireen Mazari has come forward with a different version of the events, rejecting what the military spokesman had stated in his press conference.
Thanks to Imran Khan’s web of lies, Ms. Mazari finds herself in a slippery slope with nothing to grasp. The pile of bodies, of Imran’s own men is piling up and fast. Thank fully Imran the narcissist is no Trump and Pakistan is not US (here the fissures are deep, country divided without a ray of hope). Average Pakistani is a proud and upright citizen. I hope serious lessons will be learned when facts are gleaned from past two months of Pakistani history.