ISLAMABAD: Days after he accused Imran Khan of directing him to prepare a charge sheet against Justice Qazi Faez Isa, former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) chief Bashir Memon retracted his claim, saying the prime minister did not take the judge’s name during meetings with him.
Speaking on a television programme late on Saturday night, Memon said that he had called on the prime minister for a meeting which lasted for “two to three minutes” in which “no particular case was discussed”.
وزیر اعظم کی ذات پر الزام لگائیں، ہیڈلائنز بنائیں اور بعد میں آرام سے یو ٹرن لے لیں، ٹی وی چینل سے کہو تو میڈیا کی آزادی میں خطرہ اور اگر مہمان سے پوچھو تو سیاسی انتقام کا نعرہ۔۔۔ یہ سلسلہ بند ہونا ہو گا pic.twitter.com/TE1MOZ7Fmj
— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) May 1, 2021
However, when the host asked Memon whether Imran had taken Justice Isa’s name during the meeting, he responded in the negative.
Memon, however, remained firm on the names of other ministers — Minister for Law and Justice Farogh Naseem and Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Accountability and Interior Mirza Shahzad Akbar — who he claimed had pressured him to initiate a case against the Supreme Court (SC) judge.
Memon, who had resigned from service in December 2019 as a mark of protest against being posted out close to his retirement date, had opened a pandora’s box last week when he accused the government — Prime Minister Imran, in particular — of attempting to “use the agency for political purposes” and “pressurising” him to book Justice Isa.
Speaking to a television programme, Memon had further claimed that he was also summoned and asked to take notice of a picture of the first lady tweeted by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz and to charge her under terrorism clauses, something he claimed he refused to do.
He added that the government had also asked him to imprison Maryam for delivering anti-state speeches, which he refused to do as well.
Memon said that once Prime Minister Imran summoned him and said that LEAs ignore charges against deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif, PML-N leader Khawaja Asif and others while they are after former chief of now-defunct Abraaj Group Arif Naqvi. He said that the prime minister told him that Naqvi was a friend.
