PM House in Islamanbad, Pakistan Photo: Shubert Ciencia from Nueva Ecija, Philippines
The distrust between embattled Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and increasingly assertive military was on full display over the issue of Dawn leaks report that revealed differences between the civilian and military leaders on counterterrorism issues.
Sharif, who is already under pressure in the wake of damning Supreme Court verdict on Panamagate corruption scandal, on Saturday fired his foreign policy adviser as punishment for his undisclosed role in revealing the civil-military rift to English language newspaper Dawn.
The report was allegedly based on information passed on to journalist Cyril Almeida by one of the participants after a high-level national security meeting.
But Pakistan military, through its media relations wing, rejected Prime Minister Sharif’s notification, saying it does not address recommendations of an inquiry report that looked into the Dawn leaks. The newspaper report said Sharif argued that Pakistan must go after all terrorists or face international isolation.
“Notification on Dawn Leaks is incomplete and not in line with recommendations by the inquiry board. Notification is rejected,”, tweeted DG ISPR Major General Asif Ghafoor.
The tweet led to a storm of speculations and commentaries in the media, raising questions about stability of the government.
Sharif’s notification, criticized as flawed by politicians and journalists for its dictatorial tone of seeking punishment for journalist Almeida from All Pakistan Newspapers Society, did not explain any of the findings.
In addition, Opposition parties, particularly Imran Khan’s PTI and PPP have also escalated a campaign seeking ouster of the prime minister, who now faces further investigation into charges against his offshore property kept hidden from official records.
But the current civil-military tensions, reminiscent of several military interventions, is not helpful for democracy, and Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali, who is close to both civilian and military leaders, called the military’s public response as poison for democracy.
Last year, after publication of the report, the government had set up the inquiry committee to probe how it was leaked.
According to the notice issued by the government, PM Nawaz approved the inquiry committee’s recommendation to remove Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on Foreign Affairs, Tariq Fatemi, from his post as Special Assistant to the Prime Minister.
The prime minister also directed that the role of daily Dawn/Mr Zafar Abbas/ Mr Cyril Almeida in the instant matter shall be referred to All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) for necessary disciplinary action to be taken against them, the notice read.
The APNS shall also be asked to develop a Code of Conduct for the print media especially when dealing with issues relating to security of Pakistan and to ensure that stories on issues of national importance and security are published by abiding to basic journalistic and editorial norms, the notice added.
