Ex-COAS Bajwa and some generals took part in toppling PTI govt: Fawad

PTI senior leader Fawad Chaudhry has claimed that some army generals, as well as ex-chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, were actively involved in sending the PTI administration home.

The former information minister asserted in an interview with BBC HardTalk on Friday.

When host Stephen Sackur questioned Chaudhry about how the military assisted PTI in gaining power, the former minister argued that it did so independently throughout a 22-year campaign.

However, he did not hold back when he claimed that a plot had driven his party from power.

The former minister continued by asserting that the PTI’s coalition partners in the previous administration were similarly under the grip of the establishment.

Sackur also questioned the PTI leader on DG ISI Lt Gen Nadeem Anjum’s press conference alongside former ISPR commander Lt Gen Babar Iftikhar, in which he said that Imran Khan had asked the military to carry out an unconstitutional act during the no-confidence vote.

He denied that the PTI was opposed to the military and stated that his party was not against anyone. “In Pakistan, unelected institutions like the judiciary and the military have in the past used their powers outside the bounds of the Constitution, as is well known to all.”

When asked what evidence there was to support Khan’s claims that the PTI government was overthrown through a foreign conspiracy, Chaudhry claimed that his party had presented evidence—the cipher—about the alleged involvement of the United States in the overthrow of the PTI government in important meetings, but that it had not been taken seriously.

The PTI, he added, did not desire “confrontational relations” with the US.