ISLAMABAD: Former director-general of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), retired Lt Gen Zaheerul Islam has asserted that he had never sought resignation of the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 2014.
Talking to a local newspaper, retired Lt Gen Zaheerul Islam said, “I never sent anyone to convey any such message to Nawaz Sharif, this is absolutely wrong.”
According to Zaheerul Islam, at every stage during the 2014 sit-in, he advised the PML-N government to engage the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PIT) and Pakistan Awami Tehrik politically to end the protest.
However, Zaheerul Islam was reluctant to talk further on the subject. The comments came days after Nawaz claimed publicly that during his last tenure, the former ISI director-general conveyed a message, asking for Nawaz’s resignation during the 2014 anti-government sit-ins.
“It was said that ‘if you don’t do it you will have to face the consequences and martial law can also be imposed’,” Sharif told PML-N members in the party’s central executive committee meeting.
In this regard, Prime Minister Imran Khan, in an interview with a private news channel said, “You were the prime minister, [how] does he have the courage to say that to you?”
“If someone tells that to me, I will demand his resignation. I am the democratically elected prime minister; who can dare tell me to step down?” the prime minister added.
