It’s routine thing in army: PM need not interfere in postings, transfers, says Khaqan Abbasi

KARACHI: Former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi Tuesday said that the the prime minister needed not to interfere in the postings and transfers of army officials.

“The postings and transfers have been taking place for the last 74 years as per the system but you as the prime minister want to interfere in it. Your position may allow you to do it but there is no past precedent of it,” Abbasi said while talking in Geo News programme ‘Aaj Shahzaib Khanzada Kay Sath’.

Abbasi said in the programme that he did not have much information as to what stance the government had taken on the issue but the government should not talk about its authority. He said that transfers and postings in the army were a routine thing which should not be made controversial, adding that it was the uniqueness of the government that it talked about personalities rather than talking about the institutions.

The same happened in the NAB and the matters in the army were also being handled the way the government did in Punjab and KP. “The army has its own system and they make transfers and postings on their own. It is the choice of the army chief as to whom to post where. If the army needs an officer somewhere, there should not be any obstacle in it. This is the system which is always followed,” Abbasi said.

The former PM further said, “We don’t have any objection to it as we want the entire nation on the same page. If the postings, transfers and internal matter of an institution become talk of the town, it weakens the institution.”