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Wednesday February 12, 2025

COAS neither received letter nor interested in reading it: security sources

Sources privy to matter say news about letter came to military brass via media, Geo News reported

By Faizan Bangash & Haider Sherazi & Mumtaz Alvi & News Desk
February 05, 2025
Chief of Army Staff General Asim Munir (left) and PTI founder Imran Khan. — ISPR/X@PTIofficial/File
Chief of Army Staff General Asim Munir (left) and PTI founder Imran Khan. — ISPR/X@PTIofficial/File

ISLAMABAD/LAHORE: Contrary to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s claim, security sources on Tuesday revealed that no letter from the incarcerated former prime minister Imran Khan to Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen Asim Munir was received.

Sources privy to the matter said that the news about the letter came to the military brass via the media, Geo News reported.

The security sources indicated that if there was any matter to discuss, it should be discussed with politicians and there was no interest in reading any such letter.

Meanwhile, the PTI claimed that it was an “open letter” forwarded through journalists and social media. PTI lawyer Faisal — while speaking on Geo News programme ‘Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Sath’ — said that the former premier has expressed his position in the open letter. “I don’t think that the open letter has not reached the relevant institutions,” he added.

According to the text of the open letter, seen by The News, the former prime minister wrote that he wants the army to return to its constitutional ambit and separate itself from politics and fulfill its duties, and this is to be done by the army chief himself.

Imran emphasised that it is his job as former prime minister to identify those problems for the betterment of this nation due to which the army is constantly being defamed.

“It is essential for the stability and security of the country that the gap between the army and the people be reduced, and there is only one way to reduce this growing gap, and that is for the army to return to its constitutional boundaries, separate itself from politics and fulfill its assigned responsibilities, and this task will have to be done by the army itself, otherwise this growing gap will become fault lines in the reform of national security,” he wrote.

The letter reads: “The army is mine (Imran’s) and the country is mine and that our soldiers are making sacrifices for Pakistan. For success in the war against terrorism, it is necessary that the nation stands behind the army, but it is a sad fact that due to the policies of the establishment, the gap between the army and the people is widening day by day.”

He claims that there are some basic reasons for this, keeping in mind which the establishment needs to review its policies so that the growing distance between the people and the army and the discredit of the army can be reduced.

“The biggest reason is the historic rigging in the 2024 elections and the outright theft of the public mandate, which has aroused the anger of the people. The manner in which the agencies indulged in pre-poll rigging and political engineering to control the results has seriously damaged the trust of the nation. A ‘rude government’ was imposed on the country by giving power to a party that won only 17 seats,” he says.

According to him, the second reason is the 26th Constitutional Amendment. The way the Constitution and law have been violated in the country in order to control the judiciary through the 26th Constitutional Amendment, there is intense hatred among the Pakistani people against it. The purpose of the ongoing ‘court packing’ in the courts is that the cases against Imran Khan can be assigned to judges of their choice and decisions can be taken as they wish. The purpose of all this is to cover up arbitrary decisions, human rights violations and electoral fraud in the cases against me so that there is no one in the judiciary to give transparent decisions.

Imran writes the third reason is a black law like ‘Peca’. Electronic media has already been taken over, now in the form of Peca, social media and the internet have also been banned. Due to all this, Pakistan’s GSP Plus status is also in danger. Due to internet disruptions, our IT industry has lost more than $1.72 billion and the careers of the youth are being destroyed.

The fourth major reason, he notes, is the ongoing state terrorism against the country’s largest and most popular party. More than one lakh raids have been carried out violating the sanctity of the boundaries of our leaders and workers, more than 20,000 workers and supporters have been arrested, kidnapped, people’s families have been harassed and human rights are being continuously violated in order to crush the PTI, which has hurt public sentiments.

“The fifth major reason is the poor state of the economy due to political instability in the country, which has forced the people to leave Pakistan and move abroad rapidly along with their capital. Economic instability is at its peak. The growth rate is zero and investment in Pakistan is non-existent. Investment is not possible in any country without the rule of law and justice. Where there is fear of terrorism, no one is willing to invest. Investment comes only when a government that represents the aspirations of the people is established in the country, otherwise everything else is useless,” the PTI supremo writes.

According to him, the sixth major reason is that all institutions are working to crush the PTI for political revenge, leaving their duties behind.

Meanwhile, PTI Chairman Gohar Ali Khan has said that Imran Khan has said that whether it is an institution or its head, the army is ours. He said that the party has no contact with the establishment at the time.

Talking to reporters, he said that there was definitely a meeting in October, in which the law and order situation was discussed, however, no political demands were made in it. He said that the PTI will continue its political struggle, because peaceful meetings, rallies and protests are the constitutional right of every citizen.

When asked about any demand in the October meeting, he replied, “No, no, this was the first meeting.” He said that Imran Khan had said that he wanted to write a letter as a former prime minister, and in the letter he spoke his heart out, adding, “if any response comes from there, we should welcome it”.

Gohar said that the PTI founder himself read out the contents of the letter and that he has not read or seen this letter yet.

Meanwhile, talking to the media here at the Islamabad Judicial Complex, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Syed Shibli Faraz said that arrests during protests increase political instability, adding if any system can take the country forward, it is democracy, wherein the public mandate should not be stolen.

The PTI senator said that he came there in a case in which he was not present, adding that such cases were created to keep lawyers and leaders busy and to harass them.

Due to the political instability that has been going on for two years, he claimed, the country is not only stagnant but is also going backwards. He emphasized on democracy in the country and said that if democracy was the concept that was not needed, then countries like North Korea and Myanmar would have been prosperous.

Shibli Faraz said that PTI founder Imran Khan wrote the letter to the Army Chief because he is concerned about the country as a national leader. He has presented a complete overview of the country’s situation in the letter. “When things reach this point, it is not right to remain silent.”

Separately, PTI Information Secretary Sheikh Waqas Akram emphasised it was high time to pay heed to the unlawfully jailed party founder Imran Khan’s proposed viable and comprehensive solution to the country’s deep-rooted issues before it’s too late.

In a statement here, he said that the ‘mandate thieves’ should not be worried regarding the PTI chairman-for-life’s letter to the COAS because he is not an ordinary and a self-centered politician like the Sharifs and Zardari, but a statesman and a leader of world stature who can navigate Pakistan through its current challenges.

He said that the PTI founder, in his letter, suggested the best and most workable remedial measures, which would not only help heal the nation’s wounds but would also help provide a roadmap to put the country on the path of progress and prosperity.

Waqas noted that Imran Khan had always prioritised Pakistan’s interests, steadfastly refusing to compromise on his vision for a welfare state modeled after the State of Madina, despite facing brutal suppression and fascism.

He claimed that the PTI founding chairman was striving for constitutional supremacy, upholding the rule of law and genuine democracy, sacrificing his personal comforts but did not budge an inch from his stated positions.

Zardari and Sharifs, he alleged, had a history of brokering deals and seeking NROs to escape punishment because their corrupt practices were well-known globally, and it was clear that their pursuit of power was driven by a desire to exploit their positions and accumulate wealth, rather than serving the country and its people.

Meanwhile, PTI founding member Akbar S Babar, in a statement issued here, reacted to the letter, saying it would achieve nothing, as intentions are judged by actions not by empty statements.

“When actions are there, no one can be fooled by the manipulation of words. On the one hand, there is chaos and anti-national politics, the latest example of which is the preparation to sabotage the Champions Trophy, while on the other hand, expressing good intentions through a letter to the Army Chief is just a continuation of double-dealing politics,” he charged in a statement issued here.

Babar contended that PTI’s anti-national politics had left no stone unturned in defaming Pakistan and causing economic damage; a systematic campaign is being waged against the country with illegal funding worth millions of dollars from abroad, which is still ongoing.

The Constitution of Pakistan, he pointed out, does not allow any political party to organise abroad and raise funds as a party and that this has been proven in the decision of foreign funding case. But unfortunately, he noted the government is continuously ignoring this basic requirement of national security and is heedless of coordinated legal action.

He argued that the PTI was formed to settle the country and make the citizens prosperous, and not to harm Pakistan by becoming a tool of anti-national forces for gaining power. “If peaceful protest is a democratic right, then the people have the right to fulfill democratic duties as well, whereas this party has completely failed in fulfilling such duties,” he contended.

Babar believed that now the only way for the party to survive is to change the direction of its politics. He added the party will have to go back to the objectives for which this party came into existence. He made it clear that instead of letters or empty statements, the PTI would have to prove through its actions that it had said goodbye to chaos and anti-national politics of the past forever.

Transparent intra-party elections, he emphasized, were the last lifeline of PTI while all other paths had been closed. “This party is the trust of workers and it must be handed over to elected representatives of workers. This is the democratic path through which closed doors in politics can be opened.”

He said the founders of PTI had already submitted their written proposals in that regard to the Election Commission of Pakistan, adding sooner or later, the party would have to be freed from the political capture group, otherwise complete destruction of the party was imminent.

Meanwhile, the government termed Imran’s letter to Chief of the Army Staff Gen Asim Munir a “drama and a storm in a tea cup”.

“It’s nothing but a drama and a storm in a tea cup,” Barrister Aqeel Malik, the government’s spokesperson on legal affairs, said while speaking on Geo News programme ‘Capital Talk’.

Barrister Aqeel said Imran used “all his cards” and wasted them. “PTI wanted [US President] Donald Trump to talk about its founder’s release in his first speech,” he claimed.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) leader Senator Irfan Siddiqui commented on the letter by reciting a couplet.

During an interview with Geo News, Irfan Siddiqui commented by reciting a verse by Mirza Ghalib: “Khat likhain gay garcheh matlab kuch na ho, Hum to aashiq hain tumharay naam kay.”

(“We will write letters even if there is no purpose. We are simply lovers of your name.”)

Irfan Siddiqui stated that he decided to speak in the language of poetry after seeing Shibli Faraz’s picture. He further remarked that such letter-writing emerges when one reaches the peak of desperation. Sometimes, you run towards negotiations, sometimes you talk about meetings, sometimes you claim that your ‘channel’ has opened and sometimes you write a 360-page letter.

Meanwhile, talking to the media on the Punjab Assembly premises, provincial assembly Speaker Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan said Imran Khan’s act of writing a letter to the army chief was contrary to his own political stance. The speaker stated that his party had reservations on Supreme Court’s decision concerning reserved seats and asked as to why those seats be given to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. He also stated a total of 37 petitions about poll rigging had been filed and even if the PTI gets all the seats back, it was not in the position of forming the government.

The speaker also said if the PTI used the forum of judiciary for its politics, parliament also had complete right to play its constitutional role. He said it was the discretion of the government to take any decision about the PTI public meeting on February 8.

“Before taking any decision, the role of a party whose past has been linked with torching state assets and disrespecting the statues of martyrs has to be reviewed.”

He asked whether any political party could adopt such tactics as adopted by the PTI whose workers attacked Rangers and damaged the state properties. To a question, he said Nawaz Sharif getting active in politics was a healthy sign for Pakistan. It was Nawaz who took remarkable steps for the progress of Pakistan and prosperity of the nation.