Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Hours after a ‘fruitful’ meeting between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa and subsequent issue of an ‘updated’ notification by the Interior Ministry on Wednesday, Pakistan Army ‘withdrew’ its April 29 tweet wherein it had ‘rejected’ directives of the Prime Minister’s Office on Dawn Leaks inquiry report, bringing a major sigh of relief for the already embattled government of PML-N currently struggling to fend off legal and political challenges associated with the ongoing Panama scandal.

“The tweet on April 29, 2017 was not aimed at any government office or person,” a press release issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said.

“Recommendations as contained in Para 18 of the inquiry committee report, duly approved by the prime minister, have been implemented, which has settled the Dawn leaks issue. Accordingly, ISPR’s said twitter post stands withdrawn and has become infructuous,” the statement said.

“Pakistan Army reiterates its firm commitment and continued resolve to uphold the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and support the democratic process,” it concluded.

According to PM House spokesperson Musadiq Malik, the one-and-a-half-hour-long meeting was held in a ‘cordial atmosphere’ where both sides agreed to resolve the matter ‘amicably’.

Inter-Services Intelligence DG Lt Gen Naveed Mukhtar, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar were also present in the meeting.

Ch Nisar is scheduled to hold a press conference on Thursday (today) where he is likely to throw light on the Dawn Leaks saga and the ensuing reports of rifts between the civilian and military establishments.

Addressing a press conference later in the day, ISPR DG Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor said his April 29 tweet was only a reaction to the incomplete notification issued by the government at that time. “Now that the complete notification has been issued, the matter stands settled,” he clarified, although he failed to notice that the new hurriedly typed notification with many a typo and grammatical mistake in it had in fact nothing new in it but the endorsement of the removal of Senator Pervez Rashid as information minister.

The ISPR chief regretted that ‘everyone within and outside the media took up a position regarding the Dawn story probe’. “Two groupings emerged on the issue,” he said, and added, “Purpose of the tweet was not to side with any personality … it was in reference to the PM Office press release being incomplete.”

“Today, the Ministry of Interior has issued notification according to Para 18 of the inquiry committee’s report and the misunderstandings of the past couple of weeks have been cleared,” he said.

“Whatever followed the development is regrettable … we appreciate efforts by the government for not only bringing the reality to the fore but also removing all misunderstandings,” he said.

“Pak Army is a strong institution of the state. We as an institution will continue to do what is right for the country and work with other institutions,” he reiterated. “We have spoken a lot about democracy in the past few weeks, but never ever a voice was raised against democracy,” he clarified.

“Pakistan Army values democracy as much as all other Pakistanis do,” he said, and added, “We are in favour of a strong democracy and, keeping the constitution of the country in mind, will continue to do what is better for our country.”

Although the matter of Dawn Leaks has been declared as ‘settled’, both civilian as well as military establishments have failed to reveal who actually breached the national security by ‘planting a concocted story’ in a mainstream media outlet, or ‘leaking the minutes of the meeting’ to the newspaper if the story was not fabricated, since all who have been mentioned in the inquiry report as ‘guilty’ have been blamed for only failing to get the story stopped from publishing.