Imran Khan has directed his party leaders and social media team to ensure that the army and new COAS General Asim Munir are not criticized.
ISLAMABAD: PTI chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan have directed his party leaders and social media team to ensure that the army and new COAS General Asim Munir are not criticized.
According to the source, Imran Khan said,” Please ensure that there is no criticism of the new army chief and staff.”
This direction by Imran Khan is a clear sign of the party’s efforts to restore troubled relations with the military establishment. A party source said that after appointing General Asim Munir as Army Chief, Imran Khan does not want any reflection on what happened between him and General Asim Munir during his prime ministership.
When contacted, PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry neither confirmed nor denied Khan’s latest directive to his leaders and social media team but said it was not the party’s policy to have a confrontation with the establishment.
Chaudhry explained that PTI had problems with specific individuals and their policies in the past. We have never had a problem with the army as an institution which he says is vital to the security and defense of Pakistan.
In a tweet on Wednesday, Imran Khan congratulated General Sahir Shamshad Mirza as the new CJCSC and General Syed Asi Munir as the new Chief of Army Staff. Khan hoped,” “The new military leadership will work to end the prevailing trust deficit between the nation and the state over the past eight months. The power of a state is derived from its people.”
In the same tweet, Imran Khan shared a quote by Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah: “Remember that the armed forces are servants of the people and you do not do national politics; it is we civilians who decide these questions, and it is your duty to carry out these tasks entrusted to you” (Quaid-i-Azam to Armed Forces; 14 August 1947).
With the appointment of a new army chief, Imran Khan and the PTI have made a major political shift from what the former prime minister, his party leaders, and social media team have been promoting for the past eight months.
Since his ouster, Prime Minister Imran Khan has come out heavily against the military establishment, holding them responsible for removing his government. He also attacked the institution’s neutrality and repeatedly urged the military establishment led by former Army Chief (retired) Qamar Javed Bajwa to oust the current government and pave the way for general elections.
In all these months, PTI’s social media has run through countless campaigns targeting the military establishment, the army high command. Offensive language was also used in these campaigns. Some PTI leaders also used foul language against the military establishment and its key players.
According to sources, Imran Khan initially had reservations about appointing General Asim Munir as the army chief but later changed his policy and said he would have no objection regardless of who was made COAS.
During his prime ministership, Imran Khan prematurely removed Asim Munir from the post of DG ISI when he allegedly informed the prime minister about the alleged corrupt practices of some people close to Khan. However, when Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif approved Asim Munir as the Army Chief, President Dr. Arif Alvi flew to Lahore to confer with Imran Khan, who also agreed to top military appointments by the current government. Earlier, Khan insisted that the current government had no right to appoint a new army chief. He opined that Gen Bajwa could get an extension to allow the new government to select a COAS after the next general elections.
