Athar Abbas comments: Ex-servicemen cautioned against public statements

Nisar says revealing military leadership’s decisions may create difficulties.


APP/news Desk July 02, 2014

ISLAMABAD:


Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has cautioned retired senior servicemen about making statements on current developments in the country.


“Senior retired army officers should be very careful while making statements regarding the current sensitive situation prevailing in the country,” he told reporters on Wednesday.

The statement came two days after former Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) director general (DG) Maj-Gen (retd) Athar Abbas told the BBC in an interview that former army chief Gen (retd) Ashfaq Parvez Kayani was reluctant to launch a military operation in North Waziristan Agency.

While answering reporters’ questions about the former army spokesperson’s statement, Nisar said “wisdom and prudence demand that people who were involved in important decisions should be secretive as it would be good for the nation and the country.”

“In this age of media, any little slip of the tongue can create an adverse situation [for the country],” he said. “At this stage of history, bringing into open decisions of the current or former leadership of the military in this way may create difficulties but cannot be helpful in providing a solution,” he added.

The interior minister appealed to the media to show restraint in making this statement a topic of discussion at a time when Pakistan direly needs unity.

In his interview with the BBC on Monday, Maj-Gen (retd) Athar Abbas disclosed that the army was on the brink of launching a military offensive in North Waziristan three years ago, but was unable to due to Kayani’s reluctance.

He said the military leadership had given the go-head for an operation in North Waziristan in 2010, and preparations for it were made for one year, but it was pulled back at the last minute due to ‘Kayani’s indecisiveness’.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 3rd, 2014.

COMMENTS (19)

Abdul Mannan Lodhi | 9 years ago | Reply

Armed Forces leadership has to be bold to take decisions in the interest of the nation.So should be the case of the government institutions and functionaries .Outcome of such decisions,sometimes may not come out to be as expected in the national interest .The nation must stand by its leaders irrespective of the outcome of the action taken by the leadership once the action taken was according to the rule of the law .If we admire the functionaries of the nation according to the outcome of their decisions ,admire them in one case and condemn them when the result is not according to our expectations we encourage them to inaction indecision.Let our leadership be bold in taking action against the enemies of the country,enemies of the Pakistani nation and enemies of the society.Let us defend our forces ,our police and our law enforcing agencies. If we do not support them we can not hope peace and stability in the country. But we must make sure that no body is wronged .No innocent is harmed.

NonSense | 9 years ago | Reply

@Umer: "...the Sikandar six hours saga in Islamabad ..." was a political ploy of a political party and Nisar smartly let it unfold and fizzle out and made sure their was no casualty. Unlike the Islamabad misadventure/political ploy, the Karachi airport attack was due to a selective operation of the Sindh govt, which failed to take notice of the alarms that were sent to it by Nisar. After the Eighteenth Amendment, the Federal Govt has to take a backseat as regards provincial security matters. Nisar is also cautious since the Sindh govt is extra-sensitive to Federal "interference." Kudos to Nisar for doing as well as he is in the given restrictive environment.

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