PM did not mention Faez Isa, law minister did: Memon

ISLAMABAD: Former director general Federal Investigation Agency Bashir Memon Saturday said Prime Minister Imran Khan did not mention Justice Qazi Faez Isa’s name during his brief meeting with him. It was Law Minister Farogh Nasim who had discussed with him about the Supreme Court judge in a later meeting the same day.

In a television interview, Memon claimed that he had told the federal law minister that the PM had not asked him about Qazi Faez Isa; otherwise he would have explained to the premier that it was not an FIA’s job and the Supreme Judicial Council was the right forum to investigate the matter. He said that he would have attempted to explain to the prime minister the legal issues had he talked to him about Faez Isa during the meeting. He said a judicial commission or a parliamentary committee could be formed to get to the reality of what he was saying or claiming.

Bashir Memon, however, claimed again that the prime minister did ask him to fix political leaders including Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz, Hamza Shahbaz, Suleman Shahbaz, Khwaja Asif, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Rana Sanaullah, Khurshid Shah, Nafeesa Shah, Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, Asfandyar Wali and some officials including Arsalan Iftikhar Chaudhry, and former NAB chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry.

About visits to Prime Minister’s Office, the former DG said the records of main entrance and the protocol office would confirm how many times he had visited the PM Office. He said sometime he had to visit the PM Office thrice a week.

Speaking about Arif Naqvi, Memon claimed the premier told him on more than one occasions that the FIA did ‘injustice’ to Mr Naqvi. “Didn’t you know Arif Naqvi is my friend,” Bashir Memon quoted PM Imran Khan as saying, adding that he had seen Mr Naqvi visiting the PM Office in those days.

It may be mentioned here that in an earlier television interview, Bashir Memon had said that he was taken to meet the Prime Minister by Shehzad Akbar and Azam Khan, where the PM said: “you are a very good officer and this is a very important case. You will have to show some courage and take it up.” He said it was a very brief meeting and he did not know what was the Prime Minister talking about. He said he learnt that the case was about Faez Isa in a subsequent meeting with the law minister in his room where he was taken to by Shehzad Akbar and Azam Khan.

Speaking to media separately, Bashir Memon clarified that meetings with the Prime Minister, his staff officer Azam Khan, SAPM on Accountability Shehzad Akbar and Law Minister Farogh Nasim took place on the same day “ in a span of a few hours”.

In a related development, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said the tendency to accuse the prime minister [of doing something wrong], making news headlines of it and then taking a u-turn must stop now.

In a tweet tagging a video clip of a television interview of the former DG FIA, Bashir Memon in which he admitted that his meeting with the prime minister lasted for a few minutes only and the prime minister did not mention a name [of person] or a particular case, the minister said: “if this issue is raised with the concerned news channel, media freedom is under threat and if the guest is asked to explain, the slogan of political victimisation is raised”. This tendency should stop now, he wrote.

In a separate tweet, Dr Shahbaz Gill also wrote: “Good that Memon Sahib has realized his mistake.”