Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The civilian and military establishments on Saturday virtually came face-to-face after Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), in a straightforward and curt statement, all together rejected a notification issued by the Prime Minister’s Office on controversy surrounding Dawn Leaks, terming it ‘incomplete and not in line with the recommendations of the inquiry board’.

“Notification on Dawn Leaks is incomplete and not in line with recommendations by the Inquiry Board. Notification is rejected,” DG ISPR Major General Asif Ghafoor said via his Twitter handle, hours after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, while approving recommendations of an inquiry committee set up in November last year to investigate the controversy stirred by a controversial report published by Dawn newspaper about a key meeting on national security, issued directives to remove Tariq Fatemi, special assistant to the prime minister on foreign affairs, from his post for his alleged role in the scandal.

The communiqué from the PM’s Office further read that action should be taken against Rao Tehsin Ali, principal information officer of the Ministry of Information, ‘under the E&D Rules 1973’ on charges levelled against him in the committee’s report.

The role of Daily Dawn/Mr Zafar Abbas/ Mr Cyril Almeida in the instant matter shall be referred to All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) for necessary disciplinary action to be taken against them, the communiqué read.

The APNS shall also be asked to develop a code of conduct for the print media especially when dealing with issues relating to security of Pakistan and to ensure that stories on issues of national importance and security are published by abiding to basic journalistic and editorial norms, the notice added.

Further necessary action may be taken accordingly by the ministries and divisions concerned, the notice issued by Secretary to the Prime Minister Fawad Hasan Fawad concluded.

Following Pakistan Army’s snub to the PM Office’s directives, the opposition parties too rejected it and lashed out at the government for not implementing all the recommendations of the inquiry board that probed the case. They also demanded of the government to make public the entire inquiry report.

The Prime Minister’s House has so far remained silent over the rejection of its notification by the army. However, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan tried to calm the situation by saying that the Prime Minister’s Office had only issued a reference and his ministry was yet to issue a formal notification in this regard.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar clarified that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had only accorded approval to Para 18 of the inquiry report. He said the communiqué issued by the PM’s Office was only a precursor to the further steps set to be taken very soon.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is likely to chair a high-level meeting of his close aides on Sunday (today) to review options in the aftermath of the tense situation developed following ISPR’s rejection of the government’s directives.

Earlier, the Ministry of Interior had on Tuesday said that it had received the report compiled by a committee that probed the controversy. The report was subsequently presented to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for approval.

In the controversial story published in Daily Dawn last year, Cyril Almeida had reported that in a high-level meeting on national security held on October 3 last year, the civilian leaders had spoken about the ‘growing diplomatic isolation’ of Pakistan over alleged lack of action against some militant groups. The report had whipped up a storm and while the federal government had repeatedly denied it as ‘fabricated and planted’, the top army brass had called it a breach of trust on national security.

The mounting pressure by the military over publication of the story had led to the sacking of the then information minister Pervaiz Rasheed. Almeida’s name was also placed on the Exit Control List (ECL) after the publication of the story, but later removed after human rights and media organisations condemned the move.