Levelling false charges for vested interests routine in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Top military sources have confirmed to The News that a national level campaign against one of the contenders for the position of the chief of army staff (COAS) and his faith is absolutely baseless and is being spread by vested interests.

Top official sources also confirmed to The News that the top security agency has officially informed in writing to the concerned authorities that not only the army general but all members of his family are Muslim by faith.

It is more important to mention that the same campaign was orchestrated and executed against two other top contenders as well by some vested interests a few days back. It has become a routine now in Pakistan to declare people ‘Qadiani’ or traitor to teach them a lesson because of any opposition or to deprive them of any benefit. The basic philosophy is to make this allegation and to make any person controversial in order to get rid of him.  

Top military sources say that it is an unwritten principle that any person from ‘Qadiani’ community could never reach the position of Lieutenant General as many checks are placed because of the sensitivity of the issues among general public on this subject. “Almost every year every Muslim officer has to fill a form before joining some training or course declaring in categorical terms that he believes in finality of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) and doesn’t belong to Qadiani/Ahmedi community,” a senior army official told The News adding “All the propaganda against a top contender for the position of COAS is baseless and wrong and vested interests are behind this move”. The senior military official said that the basic objective of this conspiracy is to divide the armed forces and this effort is bound to fail. 

It is however intriguing that despite a national level campaign, a column in an Urdu national daily, press releases by some leading clerics, a huge social media campaign and intense propaganda in different social circles - there was no clarification in defense of the under attack general from ministry of defence. 

It is also confirmed by the family members, contacts and friends of the general, a contender for the position of COAS, that neither the general nor any member of his family belongs to or ever belonged to the Qadiani/Ahmedi community. It is false and baseless propaganda spread by some vested interests. The followers of the religion of Islam use to claim that the religion teaches not to blame anyone or to make allegations against anyone for anything for which one doesn’t have unavoidable solid evidences. However, in the present case many people went on to make statements about the faith of an individual without proper personal verifications. This was against teachings of their own religion on the basis of which they term Ahmedi/Qadiani community as non-Muslim. 

A leading Islamic scholar Professor Sajid Mir who also remained PML-N senator for a long time became victim of same propaganda and he issued a statement terming the same general being considered for the top military position as Qadiani. However, after proper verifications he issued a denial of his previous statement. In a video statement, Professor Sajid Mir stated that top military authorities contacted him and verified that neither the said army general being considered for the position of COAS nor any member of his family belonged to Qadiani community. He stated that he apologized and took his statement back.