PM consults aides on defusing Dawn Leaks notification controversy

Punjab CM meets Nawaz separately to discuss Imran Khan's bribery allegations

LAHORE: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif summoned a high-level meeting in Lahore on Sunday to discuss the controversy surrounding the Dawn Leaks notification his office issued a day earlier and its rejection by the military.

According to sources the premier has instructed senior government members to defuse the stand-off like situation created between the government and military over to the release of a Dawn Leak Inquiry report to the media.


Prime minister’s close aide’s Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar, Principal Secretary to PM Fawad Hassan Fawad, Hamza Shehbaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif were part of the meeting.

The meeting also discussed prevailing political situation in the country.

Sources also revealed that Shehbaz Sharif also held a separate meeting with the premier to discuss the allegations levelled by PTI chief Imran Khan regarding the bribe offered to him to keep mum on the Panamagate case.

The chief minister cancelled three of his engagements for the meeting with the prime minister.


The meeting, according to a political analyst, was important since it took place a day after the Pakistan Army, in an unprecedented move, rejected Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s directives on Dawn Leaks inquiry and termed them ‘incomplete’.

The situation further strained after Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar said that state institutions should refrain from tweeting regarding important state issues.

He termed such tweets lethal to democracy.

The meeting also discussed matter regarding issuance of a new notification and the implementation of the remaining recommendations of the committee.