Ch Nisar shares details of Dawn story probe

ISLAMABAD: Explaining government’s point of view on sacking of Pervez Rashid as Information Minister, Interior Minister Ch Nisar Ahmed on Sunday said that being the minister, he should have told the reporter to not run the ‘baseless’ story.

“Pervez Rashid must have told the journalist that the news is incorrect and should not be published as it is against the national interest and in case the reporter resisted he could have asked the editor of the newspaper to not to run the story,” he said.

The minister was sharing the details with media about the probe into a newspaper story.

He said that a decision was taken in a meeting between the prime minister and army chief that an initial inquiry should be done into it.

“A committee headed by me including the law minister and some other officials investigated the matter and concluded that the information minister is at fault.”

He said the contents of the controversial news story were completely baseless and there was no such meeting that day.

Ch Nisar said that all information given to the newspaper about an altercation between Shahbaz Sharif and the ISI chief, or the foreign secretary's comments that Pakistan stands isolated in the world are all false.

Praising the foreign secretary, Ch Nisar said he is a true servant of the state and the reporter had tried to put his words into foreign secretary’s mouth.

Giving details about the meeting with Gen Raheel at the Army House, he said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif asked me to share the findings with the COAS.