The campaign against the Pakistan Army and Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Asim Munir abroad was sharply denounced by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday, who urged Pakistanis living abroad to speak out against it.
In a statement released by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), he stated, “The campaign against the army chief is outrageous and a continuation of the conspiracy against the institutions”.
The premier said that Pakistanis living abroad were disseminating poison politics. He urged patriotic Pakistanis who were residing overseas to speak out against the “foreign-funded campaign” and to avoid becoming involved in such plots.
In his remarks, PM Shehbaz further said that PTI Chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan was violating the Constitution by using state institutions and their leaders in his nefarious politics. He directed the interior minister to use “iron hands” to deal with individuals responsible for such anti-institution efforts across the nation.
The PM emphasized that those who were involved in inciting disorder, rioting and revolt in Pakistan should face harsh legal consequences and that the country stood by its institutions and was unified.
The campaign against the COAS, who the prime minister said was the “first army chief to be nominated on merit in Pakistan” could only be the goal of the country’s adversaries.
“PTI’s vile slander campaign against Chief of the Army Staff General Asim Munir at the behest of Imran Niazi is deserving of the harshest censure,” PM Shehbaz later said in a tweet.
In his thirst for power this man is falling to historic lows and going to the length of harming the country and weakening our military forces & their leadership, he said.
The PMO statement comes a day after hundreds of Pakistani Americans rallied outside the White House on Sunday to call for a stop to the government’s efforts against Imran, defying the bitter cold and cutting winds.
