PM Imran rejects Asim Bajwa's resignation as SAPM

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday rejected the resignation of Lt Gen (retd) Asim Saleem Bajwa from the position of special assistant to the prime minister on information and broadcasting.

Bajwa, decided to step down on late Thursday as a top prime ministerial aide shortly after coming clean on scandalous allegations of assets concealment in a detailed rebuttal shared on the popular micro-blogging site Twitter.

The prime minister expressed satisfaction with the evidence and explanation given by Lt Gen (retd) Asim Saleem Bajwa and asked him to continue working as his special assistant.

Bajwa had announced that he would resign as special assistant to the prime minister on information and broadcasting, but would continue as chairman of CPEC Authority.

“I want to focus fully on CPEC projects,” he said in television interviews Thursday night. “CPEC projects are the country’s future,” he added. SAPM Asim said he would submit his resignation to Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday. “I hope the prime minister will allow me to dedicate my full attention to CPEC projects.”

Lt Gen (retd) Asim did not indulge in political rhetoric since the levelling of the blatant allegations against him and his family in a news report published on an “obscure” website. He took practical steps which, political observers say, reflect the high moral standards of the institution he has served for decades.

Asim Bajwa’s decision to resign came shortly after he issued a detailed rebuttal to the allegations against him and his family. “I have not shied away to explain the allegations shamelessly levelled against me. These allegations have been hurled at me to tarnish my image,” he wrote in a four-page press release.

The former chief military spokesperson “vehemently denied” the contents of the news report by journalist Ahmad Noorani published an “unknown” website on August 27, 2020 as “incorrect and false”.