No proof who leaked ‘fabricated news’

Chaudhry Nisar says Pervaiz Rashid relieved of his office because he failed to stop the news from publication

ISLAMABAD: A day after the government sacked its information minister, Pervaiz Rashid, over a ‘planted news story’, the security czar said no technical data was available to establish who had ‘leaked’ the story to a daily Dawn reporter, though he disclosed that ‘two or three persons’ were under the radar.

“Pervaiz Rashid has been relieved of his office because he failed to stop the story from publication. He should have asked the reporter, Cyril Almeida, that the story is fabricated and he should not publish it,” Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, the federal interior minister, told a news conference at the Punjab House on Sunday.



Nisar disclosed that the reporter had met Rashid at his office – and this meeting was documented. “If Cyril Almeida didn’t listen, then Pervaiz Rashid must have spoken to Dawn’s editor and management. This is a ‘lapse’ on Rashid’s part,” added Nisar, who supervised initial inquiry into the story published in Dawn on October 6.



Rashid was sent packing on Saturday after preliminary investigations established a ‘lapse’ on his part vis-à-vis the ‘planted news story’ about a top level huddle on national security which gave the impression that the powerful security establishment was reluctant to act against non-state actors.

The government is now setting up an inquiry committee, comprising senior officers of the Inter-Services Intelligence, Military Intelligence and Intelligence Bureau, to “clearly apportion blame, identify interests and motives and expose all those responsible for this episode for stern action in the national interest”.

According to Nisar, the sacked minister has his own point of view on the issue, but he has advised him not to go public and instead share it with the investigation committee.

Nisar said that on the day terrorists unleashed carnage at the Police Training College in Quetta, army chief General Raheel Sharif had asked Premier Sharif about progress into the inquiry Nisar was conducting into ‘planted news’.



“The prime minister told me that the army chief wants findings of the inquiry and recommendations shared with him. However, I told the premier that I’m ready to share it with the army chief but Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif should also accompany him to the Army House,” he recalled. “Subsequently, we phoned him [army chief] and called on him with protocol. It was a pleasant meeting.”

He again sought to rebut the Dawn story, saying the civil and military leadership was on the same page vis-à-vis action against non-state actors. “There has been no difference of opinion on action against non-state-actors,” he added.

Nisar also sought to quash rumours that he was left out of the new investigation committee that has been tasked to identify interests and motives and expose all those responsible for the planted story for stern action. “In fact, I was asked to head the committee but I declined,” he added.

The minister said anyone who published the fabricated news story should be exposed before the nation because it has compromised national security.

PTI dharna

Commenting on PTI’s lockdown plans, Nisar said Pakistan was a nuclear state and what message Imran Khan wanted to give to the world by paralyzing the federal capital. “They [PTI] are planning to occupy the Pakistan Secretariat to paralyze the state machinery,” he claimed.

“Lockdown is a crime against the state. It will bring a bad name to the state and the government.”



About the crackdown on PTI workers, Nisar said he had drawn redlines and directed the law enforcement agencies not to arrest lawyers and women. “The law enforcers have been maintaining the writ of the state during the past three days.”

The minister said that an impression was being created that the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government has declared war against the Centre. “Khan sahib, what you’re sowing today will shatter the foundations of Pakistan,” he said addressing PTI chairman Imran Khan. Nisar disclosed that he has contacted Khan through intermediaries to settle the issue.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 29^th, 2016.