Nawaz Sharif sacks trusted aide after news leak scandal
ISLAMABAD: Embattled Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Saturday sacked his trusted aide Tariq Fatemi after an inquiry found him guilty of “leaking” information to media about a rift between Pakistan’s civilian and military leaderships during a high-level security meet.
Sharif approved an inquiry committee’s recommendation to remove his special assistant on foreign affairs Fatemi from his post. Fatemi, 72, is considered as a trusted aide of the prime minister and his removal is a setback for the government of Sharif who is already under pressure due to Panama case verdict.
The committee, headed by Justice (retd) Aamir Raza Khan, included representatives of the Intelligence Bureau, the Military Intelligence and the Inter-Services Investigation. It was set up last year to probe the controversy surrounding a controversial report by daily about a key meeting on national security. In October, a columnist for
newspaper wrote a frontpage story about a rift between civilian and military leaderships over militant groups.
“In a blunt, orchestrated and unprecedented warning, the civilian government has informed the military leadership of a growing international isolation of Pakistan and sought consensus on several key actions by the state,” the report had said. It further said that “mil- itary-led intelligence agencies are not to interfere if law enforcement acts against militant groups that are banned or until now considered off-limits for civilian action.”
The army took strong exception to the Dawn story and relations between army and the civil government deteriorated. The PML-N government was forced to remove then information minister Pervaiz Rasheed but a probe was also initiated at the demand of army to fix the responsibility. The report was submitted to the prime minister this week.