Former chief of army staff retired General Qamar Javed Bajwa and ex-director general of Inter-Services Intelligence Lt Gen (retd) Faiz Hameed have denied the allegations of JUI leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman about the vote of no-confidence against ex-prime minister Imran Khan, Geo News reported.
In a report, journalist Ansar Abbasi claimed that close sources of the former army chief and ex-spy master have denied such allegations and added that the religio-political leader should get his facts straight first as Gen Faiz had resigned from the position of ISI DG months before the vote of no-confidence.
Fazl was the president of the multi-party confab – Pakistan Democratic Movement alliance – that ousted the former prime minister Imran Khan’s government through a no-trust vote in April 2021.
But his bombshell interview with Nadeem Malik of Samaa shocked many politicians. Fazl claimed that Bajwa and Faiz, who was the then-Peshawar corps commander, had guided all political parties regarding the no-trust vote against former prime minister Imran Khan and the PTI government.
“They (Gen Bajwa and Gen Faiz) were in contact with all political parties regarding the no-confidence motion and they told us the way of going about it,” he said.
Abbasi’s report added that the religo-political leader had forgotten that Faiz was the Peshawar corps commander when the motion was tabled in the National Assembly. He had left Islamabad in November 2021, they added.
Sources claimed that Bajwa met Fazl twice. One meeting was allegedly held at the house of the-then army chief when the JUI leader was leading a ‘long march’ against Khan. It is reported that the meeting was not held in a pleasant mood.
The second meeting was allegedly held on March 26, 2022 in the presence of several political parties. It added that PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, BNP leader Akhtar Mengal, Jamhoori Wattan Party’s Shahzain Bugti, and MQM-P leader Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui were present in the meeting. The report without naming the official said that an “important general” was also present in the meeting.
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Close sources claimed that the meeting was held at the request of the-then prime minister Khan as he wanted the opposition parties to withdraw the no-trust vote against him.
They apparently urged the parties to allow Khan to complete his tenure. The report claimed that the two army men requested political parties to take back the no-trust motion and Khan would announce elections when they refused to budge on their decision.
Reports say that the-then prime minister had summoned the two army men in his office to discuss options to avoid the no-trust vote. In the presence of other ministers, they allegedly asked the-then prime minister to save the government by talking to the-then opposition.
