Defense Minister Khawaja Asif said on Monday that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan had rendered the next army chief’s appointment controversial since October, 2021.
He made the comments while speaking to Hamid Mir in Geo tv show Capital Talk. Khan, Asif said, had planned ahead in connection with COAS General Qamar Javed Bajwa’s November 29 retirement. He, the minister said, had decided who he’d name army chief for the following decade. This became a problem for the PTI chief after he was voted out of office and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif ascended to power.
Categorically rejecting news of a decision having been made pertaining to the appointment of the next army chief, Asif said even a summary on this was yet to be received.
The defense minister branded Khan an opportunist. He claimed that the United States had conspired to have him removed time and again. But now, Asif said, Khan was busy beseeching the Americans.
Asif said Khan was nobody’s “favourite”. Khan, he said was a mere master of turnarounds. The minister said the former prime minister’s American conspiracy narrative a fate similar to his earlier “35 puncture-claim” on rigging (in the 2013 general elections).
