Pak Army says it has ‘absolutely nothing’ to do with prevailing political situation

Islamabad, Apr 3 (PTI) Pakistan’s powerful army said on Sunday that it has “absolutely nothing” to do with the prevailing political situation in the country.

Military spokesman Maj Gen Babar Iftikhar made the remarks while speaking to a private TV channel in the wake of rejection of a no-confidence motion and subsequent dissolution of the National Assembly (NA) by President Arif Alvi on advice of Prime Minister Imran Khan. “The army has absolutely nothing to do with what happened in the NA today,” Iftikhar said.

The powerful Pakistan Army, which has ruled the coup-prone country for more than half of its 73 plus years of existence, has hitherto wielded considerable power in the matters of security and foreign policy. Pakistan Army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa has at least twice met Prime Minister Khan last week.

Earlier on Sunday, Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri dismissed the no-confidence motion submitted by the joint opposition to dislodge the prime minister as he termed it “unconstitutional” under Article 5. It provided space to the Prime Minister to send advice to the president for the dissolution of the lower house.

The current instability was triggered by the no-confidence motion by the opposition on March 8 but Prime Minister Khan fought back by declaring it a “foreign conspiracy” to topple his elected government.

According to Prime Minister Khan, the top army leadership met him last week and offered three options to resolve the political impasse, which included his resignation, facing no-confidence or calling early elections.

PTI SH ZH ZH