Islamabad. Urging people to maintain faith in military institutions, a top general of the Pakistan Army on Thursday said Pakistani military personnel can make “mistakes”, but they can never be “traitors or conspirators”. Military spokesman Major General Babar Iftikhar made the remarks during an unprecedented press conference by the country’s powerful spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lt Gen Nadeem Ahmed Anjum, who launched a veiled attack on former Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Iftikhar said, ‘We can make mistakes, but we can never be traitors or conspirators. Army is nothing without people.’ He said, ‘If we have made mistakes in the past, we have been washing them with our blood for the last twenty years. We will never fail the people of Pakistan, that is our promise.’ He said the army wants facts to come out about the murder of journalist Arshad Sharif, who was killed on Sunday night by a police station located an hour from Nairobi in Kenya. The post was shot and killed, due to which a political turmoil started in the country.
Arshad Sharif was known for his proximity to Imran
Kenyan police later said it was a case of “misidentification” during a search of a car in connection with the abduction of a child. “Therefore, the government has been requested to set up a high-level inquiry commission,” the spokesperson said. Arshad Sharif, a former reporter and anchor of ARY TV, was known for his proximity to former prime minister Khan. He fled to Kenya earlier this year after Pakistan’s security agencies booked him for promoting “anti-national” discourse. Arshad’s body was brought to Pakistan and buried on Thursday, with thousands of people attending his last rites.
‘Shocked by the brutal murder of Arshad Sharif’
The Army spokesperson said that the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of ARY channel Salman Iqbal should also be “brought back to Pakistan” and made part of the investigation as his name has cropped up time and again. Khan’s party Tehreek-e-Insaf and its senior leaders condemned Arshad’s killing and demanded a detailed probe, he said. Khan tweeted, “Shocked by the brutal murder of Arshad Sharif, who paid the price for speaking the truth. He had to leave the country and hide abroad, but he continued to speak the truth, exposing the mighty on social media. Today the whole country mourns his death.