Behind closed doors: Imran pleads for candid talks with PM, Kayani

PTI chief says the meeting should be held before the All Parties Conference.


Zahid Gishkori July 19, 2013
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chairman Imran Khan. PHOTO: MEHMOOD QURESHI

ISLAMABAD:


Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan on Thursday renewed an appeal for a special session with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani to discuss Pakistan’s so-called understanding with the United States on drone strikes.


“I, once again, want to put forward my request for a closed-door meeting to ascertain all the facts,” Imran Khan said in a statement issued here on Thursday. But Imran made it clear that the proposed meeting should be held prior to the All Parties Conference (APC).

“The APC is being held to formulate a comprehensive counter-terror policy relevant to on-the-ground facts and not mere political rhetoric.”

The PTI chairman says he is also curious about PM Nawaz’s meeting with General Kayani two months ago.

As a matter of policy, Imran said, the present government should inform political leaders about the nature of its understanding with the US. “Is the International Monetary Fund (IMF) package part of the understanding on Pakistan remaining a party in the war on terror?” Imran asked.

The public also wants to probe whether the military is on the same page as the civilian leadership because, he observed, without this clarity, no dialogue or agreement can proceed on the issue of counter-terrorism policy.

Imran Khan also claimed that the government had been refusing to take political leaders into confidence and had even lied to the people. So the truth as it were tends to come out in leaked bits of news, either through Wikileaks or books written by US authors, as happened in the case of President Zardari’s covert assent to drones.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 19th, 2013.

COMMENTS (5)

Fiz | 10 years ago | Reply

Now that Ik's wishes are about to be granted, he should come down from his high horse and start contributing positively towards curbing the menace of terrorism without this attitude of "main na manoo."

geral sosbee | 10 years ago | Reply

See my reports on USA's efforts at world inhumane domination; note that all USA prisoners of war are chipped and some are targeted for assassination (usually by drones) by intel after learning of activities and associates of the subject.

http://barcelona.indymedia.org/newswire/display/470971/index.php

http://neworleans.indymedia.org/news/2013/07/18232.php

http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/v194/showarticle/_a000194-000536.htm

So long as the United States is at war, their power is preserved, and now that they have attained empire the USA must expand the war or fall, for the arts of peace they know nothing and have never engaged in any employment higher than torture & war. Aristotleemphasized text

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