The military’s media wing on Sunday rejected the contents of a story published by BBC Urdu on the events that allegedly took place at the Prime Minister’s House on Saturday night, terming it to be “totally baseless and a pack of lies”.
In a statement, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) branded the story “typical propaganda” lacking “any credible, authentic and relevant source”, and claimed that it “violates basic journalistic ethos”.
“There is no truth in the fake story whatsoever and clearly seems part of an organised disinformation campaign. The matter is being taken up with BBC authorities,” the statement concluded.
The story in question supposedly recounts the events leading up to the ouster of Imran Khan as the prime minister.
According to the article, Parliament House was abuzz with activity during the day as the National Assembly was in session. However, it claimed that this activity shifted to the PM’s House once the session was adjourned for Iftar.
The report said that Imran had convened an emergency meeting of his cabinet – summoning his legal and political advisers, the NA speaker and deputy speaker and several bureaucrats – where it was decided that the “threat letter” would be shown to a select few officials.
The story alleged that “two uninvited guests” reached the PM’s House, with an extraordinary security detail, via helicopter and held a 45-minute private meeting with Imran.
The biggest claim in the story – made by quoting government sources – was that the meeting was less than pleasant. “Just an hour ago, former prime minister Imran Khan had given orders to remove one of the senior officials present for the meeting,” the story alleged, without taking any names.
It went on to say that the sudden arrival of the guests was “unexpected” for the former premier, adding that Imran was instead expecting the arrival of his “newly appointed officials”.
The story alleged that the necessary notifications for the removal and the new appointment were not issued by the Ministry of Defence.
“Even if the removal was carried out on the prime minister’s orders, preparations had been made to declare it null and void,” the report alleged.
The story also talked about how the doors of the Islamabad High Court were open late at night to take up a petition asking the court to restrain Imran from possibly de-notifying Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen Qamar Bajwa.
The urgent petition – which was filed but never fixed for hearing – said that Imran, for political and personal purposes, had misused his powers and recommended the removal of the COAS, urging the court to quash the order in the public interest, the report said.
