Pak army, govt clash over leak
PM’s aide sacked for giving information to journalist, but army publicly ‘rejects’ action as ‘incomplete’
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan army’s public rejection of action taken by the Nawaz Sharif government against a member of its inner circle over the Dawn Leaks affair has resulted in a standoff between the two institutions, with many fearing that things may worsen in the coming days.
On Saturday, it was announced that Sharif’s special assistant on foreign affairs Tariq Fatemi had been sacked due to his alleged role in the leaking of information about a high-level meeting of the civil and military leadership to local newspaper Dawn.
The controversy, known as Dawn Leaks, was triggered after the newspaper’s columnist Cyril Almeida, quoting unnamed sources, wrote that in a high-level meeting on national security held on October 3, 2016, civilian leaders had spoken about Pakistan’s “growing diplomatic isolation” due to its lack of action against some militant groups. The report claimed that the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency’s director general was present in the meeting, which was attended by a number of functionaries including Sharif as well as his brother Shahbaz Sharif.
Both the civil government as well as the military high command refuted Almeida’s report. In November 2016, the interior ministry notified a seven-member committee – headed by retired judge Aamer Raza Khan – to probe the matter.
Based on the recommendations of the report, Sharif’s secretary issued a letter stating that he had approved the committee’s recommendation to remove Fatemi from his post. The letter was widely shared on social media and a local TV channel on Saturday.
But within a matter of hours, a war of words between the government and the military began.
Within minutes of the letter being made public, the Pakistan Army rejected the notification from the Prime Minister’s Office.
In an unusual tweet, Major General Asif Gahfoor, director general of the army’s public relations wing, said, “Notification on Dawn Leaks is incomplete and not in line with recommendations by the inquiry board. Notification is rejected.” Sources close to the army say that others identified by the committee for action were ignored by Sharif.
In response, a few hours after the Pakistan Army’s tweet, interior minister Chaudhry Nisar said state institutions responding through tweets did not bode well for the country’s democracy. “It was only a reference issued in lieu of the briefing given to the Prime Minister,” Nisar told reporters at a press conference in Karachi, adding, “A notification is yet to be issued by the interior ministry.”
In a direct attack on the military, Nisar said, “There are several issues of great importance and it’s unfortunate that they are being dealt with through tweets. State institutions don’t communicate with each other through tweets.”
Nisar said the interior ministry would issue a notification in line with the recommendations of the inquiry board: “Nobody is being protected in the [Dawn Leaks] inquiry .”