Pakistan Army ‘shocked’ at Imran Khan’s ‘defamatory’ statement against army senior leadership
The Pakistani army on Monday expressed its discontent with the recent statement of the chairman of the PTI, Imran Khan, against the military and said that it was "aghast" over it.
During a public meeting in Faisalabad, the chairman of the PTI denounced the government. saying that it was delaying the elections deliberately to appoint its favourite army chief and that if a “patriotic army chief takes the helm, he will not spare the leadership in power.”
The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), in a statement, said that the army was “aghast” at the defamatory and uncalled-for statements about the senior leadership of the military by the PTI chief during a Faisalabad rally.
The army’s media wing said that, sadly, an attempt was made to discredit and undermine the army’s high leadership at a time when the institution was laying lives for the “security and safety of the people every day”.
The army said that senior politicians who try to sow controversy over the appointment of the COAS, whose procedure is well defined in the Constitution, is “very unfortunate and disappointing”.
ISPR stated that the senior leadership of the military has for decades had impeccable and meritorious service to prove its “patriotic and professional credentials beyond any doubt”.
Politicising the senior leadership of the Pakistan Army and scandalising the process of selection of the COAS is neither in the interest of the state of Pakistan nor of the institution, it added.
“Pakistan Army reiterates its commitment to uphold[ing] the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan,” the military’s media wing added.