Former federal minister and PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry has claimed that former Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa along with some army generals were actively involved in ousting the PTI government.
The former minister of information made the assertion in an interview with BBC HardTalk yesterday.
When host Stephen Sackur questioned Chaudhry about how the military assisted PTI in gaining power, the former minister argued that it did so independently over the course of a 22-year campaign.
However, he did not hold back when he claimed that a plot had driven his party from power.
“And in that conspiracy, some army generals were involved, there is no doubt about that and the establishment actually played a very active role in the ouster of Imran Khan. In fact, the last army chief was [also] actively involved in sending our government home,” he said.
The former minister continued by asserting that the PTI’s coalition partners in the previous administration were similarly under the grip of the establishment.
Sackur also questioned the PTI representative on DG ISI Lt Gen Nadeem Anjum’s press conference, in which he said that Imran Khan had asked the military to carry out an unconstitutional act during the no-confidence vote alongside former ISPR commander Lt Gen Babar Iftikhar.
The ex-minister went on to claim that the establishment was also controlling the parties allied with the PTI in the previous government.
Chaudhry said: “The current [army] leadership has just assumed the office and we are hoping there will be a change in the policy, but the last chief was not talking the truth when he said we asked [for their] help. We only asked for their neutrality.”
He dismissed the notion that the PTI was against the military, saying his party was not against anyone. “In Pakistan, unelected institutions like the judiciary and the military exercised their powers beyond Constitution [in the past], which is known to everyone.”
When asked about what evidence there was to back up Khan’s claims about being removed through a foreign conspiracy, Chaudhry said his party presented evidence — the cipher — about the United States’ alleged involvement in the ouster of the PTI government in key meetings, but they were not paid heed to.
The PTI leader said his party could wait for elections “but this government is not ready to hold polls as they know people will oust them through vote”.
He insisted that elections were needed for Pakistan and not for the PTI. “We are asking that elections should be held at the earliest so that a new responsible government can take care of economic affairs.”
He said Pakistan plunged into huge political chaos after the “unconstitutional” removal of Imran Khan. “Now people are standing on one side and the present ruling elite, that we call imported government, is standing on the other side and that’s the primary problem in Pakistan.”
