ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan on Tuesday clarified that he did not talk about Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa’s extension but urged to maintain merit and defer the appointment of the army chief until fresh elections.
Imran Khan clarified his previous statement related to the new army chief’s appointment that he delivered during an interview with a private news channel yesterday.
While talking to journalists at his Banigala residence a day after he indirectly hinted at granting another extension to the incumbent COAS, Khan said, “I have always talked about merit. I had said that the army chief’s appointment should be made on merit but Nawaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari are not eligible to approve the important appointment.”
“I have suggested that the position of the army chief is very important. The appointment has to be done on merit. I will repeat time and again that it should be done on merit,” Imran has said during an interview with private TV channel while building his case for the new army chief’s appointment after the elections.
He had said neither Asif Ali Zardari nor Nawaz Sharif fulfilled the criteria of merit to appoint the new army chief, adding they both lacked the moral ground to be part of such an important decision-making process.
“One is an absconder and convicted; his wealth is stashed abroad; he is imposed on us through a foreign conspiracy,” he had said.
In today’s conversation with journalists, Imran said that his proposal for the extension of the army chief’s tenure is “subject to the announcement of the early elections”.
“The appointment of the army chief should be delayed until the election of a new government,” he added.
Speaking on the occasion, the PTI chief said that ‘a few individuals have put the national security at stake for their own vested interests.
“It is also possible that I will reveal the names of all those people,” he warned.
Imran said he had always talked about for the betterment of the country. “I am standing with the institutions that are standing with the national interests”.
He reiterated that no organisation can excel without merit and added that “the institution of army is strong because it follows merit”.
On his much-hyped strategy to force the incumbent government to call early elections, Imran said he will give final call to the nation in this regard no later than September.
“They [government] are baffled by my in-swinging yorker,” he said while using a cricket analogy.
Imran said he was not in favour of delaying the early elections till March next year. “Whoever goes against the interest of Pakistan, I will stand against him. This ‘lame government’ is nothing without the establishment. I don’t want anyone to harm the country under the guise of the establishment,” he added.
He also called upon the judiciary to create a merit-based mechanism for the appointment of judges.
Speaking about his controversial remarks involving military top brass, Imran said he did not understand why Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) issued a statement as he only said that “army chief should be appointed on merit”.
The PTI ‘s chief statement had triggered a strong reaction from the army when he recently accused both the Peoples Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz of seeking the appointment of an army chief of their choice in a bid to save their skin from corruption cases.
