Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has directed Interior Minister Chaudhary Nisar Ali Khan to take all stakeholders into confidence regarding News Leaks while the prime minister has received the report of an inquiry committee formed to probe Dawn Leaks on Wednesday.

According to the sources, the interior minister will meet with Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa and will privy to COAS pertaining to the contents of the report. It is pertinent to mention here that the story published in the Dawn newspaper on October 6, 2016 by journalist Cyril Almedia, stirred a major controversy last year resulting in Almeida coming under fire from the military and government and being temporarily placed on the Exit Control List.

The report regarding a meeting of the National Security Committee alleged the existence of a rift between the military and the civilian government on the issue of tackling militants’ outfits. Later that month, the Pakistan Army’s top commanders expressed serious concern over what they called “feeding of a false and fabricated story of an important security meeting”, terming it a breach of national security.

The government called it a “fabricated” story and termed the “purported deliberations” during the security meeting as speculative, misleading, factually incorrect, and an “amalgamation of fiction and fabrication”. Following a preliminary investigation, the government relieved Senator Pervaiz Rasheed of his responsibilities as the federal minister for Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage pending a high-level inquiry.

Subsequently, the government formed a committee headed by Justice (r) Amir Raza Khan for an inquiry into the issue. Last week, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali said that the inquiry report into ‘Dawn leaks’ would be submitted to his ministry within two or three days. Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has said that the government would publish the inquiry report, unlike findings of other commissions that have been under wraps in the past.

Earlier this month, Director General ISPR Maj-Gen Asif Ghafoor said that the army, “Like every Pakistani awaits a decision based on justice and merit”.