World News | Imran Khan Writes to President Alvi to Define 'clear Operational Lines' for Pakistan Army

Islamabad, Nov 7 (PTI) Imran Khan has urged Pakistan President Arif Alvi to define the "clear operational lines" of the Pakistan Army's media wing and order a probe how its head along with the ISI chief could hold a "highly political press conference" to publicly rebut him and try to create a "false narrative."

In a letter sent President Alvi on Sunday and published by the media on Monday, the former prime minister wrote that since the removal of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party-led government by him, Pakistan has been "confronted with an ever-increasing scale of false allegations, harassment, arrests, and custodial torture."

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Khan, who suffered bullet injuries in the leg on Thursday when two gunmen fired a volley of bullets at him while leading a protest march against the Shehbaz Sharif government, alleged that Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah has “repeatedly issued death threats” to him.

The 70-year-old chief of PTI said that he was informed of an assassination plot hatched by Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and a senior military official, the Express Tribune newspaper reported.

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"The plot was operationalised earlier this week during our long march, but Allah saved me and the assassination attempt failed,” he said.

Khan requested that as the Head of the State of Pakistan and also as the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, President Alvi take note of the “following serious wrongdoings that undermine Pakistan's national security”.

On October 27, Director General of the ISI, Lieutenant General Nadeem Ahmed Anjum, held an unprecedented press conference here along with ISPR Director General Lieutenant General Babar Iftikhar and talked about journalist Arshad Sharif's killing in Kenya and former premier Khan's confrontational narrative against the military.

In his letter, Khan raised three separate points regarding the leaks from the Prime Minister Office, the cypher controversy and the role of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media wing of the powerful army.

He claimed that the Official Secrets Act was breached when a “confidential conversation between myself as prime minister, the Chief of Army Staff and the director general of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), on a supposedly secure line, was ‘leaked' to the media.”

"This raises a very serious question as to who or what organisation was involved in doing a clearly illegal wiretap of the Prime Minister's secure phone line? This is a breach of national security at the highest level,” he said.

A series of separate audio recordings surfaced in September, allegedly featuring the leadership of Khan's PTI and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) of Prime Minister Sharif holding informal conversations never meant to be heard by the public.

Khan also mentioned about the cypher controversy, which the former premier has long touted as evidence to overturn his government through a foreign conspiracy, the Dawn newspaper reported.

He noted that the National Security Committee (NSC) meeting held during his tenure had “decided this was an unacceptable intrusion into our internal matters” which was also later reaffirmed during the meeting held under the Shehbaz government.

However, a joint press conference of the ISI chief and ISPR head had the “former contradicting the decision made by the NSC under two governments and stating that the message of the US government conveyed by our envoy in Washington DC in the cypher was not an unacceptable intrusion into our internal affairs but simply a case of ‘misconduct'.”

“The question that needs to be examined is how two military bureaucrats can publicly contradict a decision of the NSC? This also raises the serious issue of these military bureaucrats deliberately trying to create a false narrative.”

“The parameters of a military information organisation such as the ISPR also need to be clearly defined and limited to information relating to defence and military issues. As supreme commander of the armed forces, I call on you to initiate the drawing up of these clear operational lines for the ISPR,” Khan said.

Khan also posed two further questions: how the head of Pakistan's premier intelligence agency could hold a public press conference and how two military bureaucrats could hold a “highly political press conference”.

He further asked Alvi, who belonged to Khan's party before assuming the presidency, to lead an inquiry to identify the guilty “and hold them accountable”.

The deposed premier reiterated that the country was observing a “massive abuse of citizens at the hands of rogue elements within state organisations, including custodial torture and abductions”, all of which he claimed was “carried out with impunity”.

“You hold the highest Office of State and I am requesting you to act now to stop the abuse of power and violations of our laws and of the Constitution, which ensures the fundamental rights of every citizen,” he said.

Khan concluded his letter by urging Alvi to protect the country's democracy and the Constitution.

“No person or state institution can be above the law of the land. We have been seeing a massive abuse of citizens at the hands of rogue elements within state organisations, including custodial torture and abductions all carried out with impunity," Khan said.

Alvi, 73, is one of the founding members of PTI. He served as the party's secretary general from 2006 to 2013.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)