Opposition calls for making inquiry report public

Say impartial probe not possible as long as Sharif is in office

ISLAMABAD: With one voice, all major opposition parties have supported the military’s position on the controversial notification on Dawn Leaks and demanded making public the complete report of the inquiry committee.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and Pakistan Peoples Party have demanded that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif resign, claiming that an impartial and fair investigation into issues of national importance was impossible in his presence.

PTI chief Imran Khan took to Twitter to call for making public the Dawn Leaks inquiry committee’s report. “[The] Dawn Leaks was a deliberate attempt to malign Pakistan Army and the government must immediately make public the complete inquiry report,” he wrote on the micro-blogging website.

Talking to The Express Tribune, PTI spokesperson Naeemul Haque said the nation wanted to know who played what role exactly to leak a ‘concocted’ story to a newspaper in a bid to give bad name to the army.

“By rejecting the notification, another key institution [army] of the country has stamped the fact that until the presence of PM Nawaz in office, impartial investigations in any case are not possible,” Haque added.



The PPP’s Khursheed Shah, who also leads the opposition in the National Assembly, said his party had also rejected the notification and demanded releasing the inquiry report.

“It is high time to understand what actually the Nawaz Sharif-led government is doing on the front of national security, as Dawn leaks is an issue directly related to Pakistan’s national security,” he said.

Shah said he personally endorsed the army’s stance of the army. “It would be unfair on the government’s part to try to shield the real culprits in the matter,” he said. “It is also a failure on part of the Interior Ministry and the interior minister, who, therefore, must resignation.”

Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) chief Tahirul Qadri also criticised the government over the issue in a series of tweets. He said the matter was related to Pakistan’s national security and those responsible for the leaks should be punished under the official secrets act.



“The PML-N-led government has committed another crime by not implementing all the recommendations of the Dawn Leaks inquiry [committee]. [The] criminal conduct of the Sharif government with regards to national security has come out in the open,” Qadri tweeted.