Faizabad sit-in probe: Interior minister not in favour of summoning ex-army officers

ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti believes summoning former army chief (retd) General Qamar Javed Bajwa and former Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) director general (R) General Faiz Hameed for investigation in the 2017 Faizabad sit-in case would not be beneficial for the country.

“Moving forward is always in the interest of Pakistan,” he said during an interview on Dawn News show ‘Doosra Rukh’. 

The federal government had on Nov 15 formed a fresh commission to probe the Faizabad sit-in and issued a notification of the same, which was then submitted before a Supreme Court bench hearing appeals against its 2019 verdict in the case.

During the hearing, Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Qazi Faez Isa had said the commission was empowered to call anyone for investigation and no one would be exempt.

According to the notification issued by the government, the commission has been tasked with probing the various aspects of the Faizabad sit-in, including the role of intelligence agencies’ officials. It will submit its findings in a report to the federal government within two months.

So far, the commission has summo­ned former Punjab and Islamabad police chiefs Arif Nawaz and Sultan Azam Temuri, respectively, former Rawalpindi division commissioner Nadeem Aslam Chaudhary, ex-premier Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and former interior minister Ahsan Iqbal. Neither Bajwa nor Faiz have been summoned by the panel as yet. During the interview with Dawn News, Bugti was asked if the ex-army officers should be summoned by the commission.

“This is the court’s job and a commission has been formed so it isn’t appropriate to comment on that. In my opinion, moving forward has always been beneficial for us,” the caretaker minister said.

On being asked if he would facilitate the commission in summoning the former military men, Bugti said: “Why would they ask us to facilitate? If they [Faiz and Bajwa] are called, they would appear [before the commission] themselves, they are citizens of Pakistan.

“But how beneficial this is for Pakistan or not is a big question mark,” he said, adding that in his opinion this won’t be favourable for the country.