Don’t drag Army into politics: Provide proofs of contacts, says ISPR DG

RAWALPINDI: Director General (DG) Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major General Babar Iftikhar Monday reiterated that the armed forces should not be dragged into politics and practice of making such speculations and levelling allegations should come to an end.

“I want to reiterate it categorically that the armed forces have no concern with politics and no backdoor contacts or backdoor channels were being used,” the DG ISPR said while talking to the media here.

Observing that an impression was coming from the opposition parties of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) about Pakistan Army being in contact with them, the DG ISPR said he wanted to ask those elements who were making such speculations, that the armed forces should not be dragged into politics. “We have our hands full and the armed forces are performing their sacred duty of security of the county and the nation against external and internal threats,” he said.

Maj-Gen Babar Iftikahr said it did not suite to anybody to make comments and accuse the armed forces of involvement in politics without any evidence or investigation. “I have already requested and will once again ask them that Pakistan Army should not be dragged into politics,” he said.

The practice of making such speculations and comments should be stopped now,” he said asking those who make such speculations to come up with evidence in support of their allegations. “They should provide evidence and show as to who is calling whom and making contacts,” he said making it clear that there was no such thing happening.

Last month, Major General Babar Iftikhar, while replying to volley of questions during a media briefing, had said the criticism being made by the opposition parties against the military was “baseless”, adding that the government had given suitable response to those statements. He also maintained that the army was subservient to the government and neither it needed to get involved in politics nor should be dragged into it.

“Absolutely not”, the DG ISPR said when he was asked to comment whether there has been any backdoor contacts with the opposition parties, as being speculated in the media. He also advised the opposition parties to approach the constitutional institutions concerned if they had any doubt about outcome of general elections. “The government then ordered the armed forces to conduct and we did our job honestly and to the best of our ability,” he said.

He said the army is subservient to the government and it did not need to get involved in politics. The DG ISPR said on Monday that the recent UN report had also vindicated assertions of Pakistan that India had been playing a very negative role in the region, while financing and supporting the terrorist organisations. “We already issued a dossier against India of its negative role in the region telling the world as to how the terrorist organisations were acting and collaborating in the region, which is supporting them and how far they were dangerous to the region,” he said.

Referring to the UN report, the DG ISPR said it was massive acknowledgement of the fact of what Pakistan had been trying to say and hopefully the world will take note of it. He said that Pakistan Army, with the help of its helicopters, was putting in every possible effort to reach to Ali Sadpara and other missing mountaineers, but due to difficult weather conditions and height, choppers could go to a certain level. “The helicopters of Pakistan Army are carrying out a challenging operation and going beyond limits and we hope that our national hero Sadpara and other mountaineers will be safe,” he said. He said that the son of missing Ali Sadpara also accompanied the search operation teams during the operation.

He said it were health workers who had been frontline national heroes in fight against COVID-19 and helped the nation in facing the pandemic bravely through their sacrifices. He said the military leadership, recognising sacrifices of the health workers, decided to donate the whole consignment given to Pakistan Army by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of China, to the national vaccination drive.

The DG ISPR also thanked the PLA for the great gesture for choosing the Pakistan Army first for gifting the COVID-19 vaccine. Meanwhile, the Pakistan’s armed forces became the first foreign military to receive consignment of COVID-19 vaccine from China but decided to donate it to national vaccination drive.

The ISPR in a statement said that PLA had donated COVID-19 vaccine for Pakistan armed forces. However, keeping with the Pakistan armed forces’ traditional spirit of ‘Nation comes first, always and every time’ it has been decided to contribute complete vaccine donation to the national vaccination drive. “Pakistan’s armed forces extend their deepest gratitude to the PLA and People’s Republic of China for this magnanimous donation during testing times,” the ISPR said.