ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Monday that outgoing army chief General Asim Munir was removed from his post as ISI chief in 2019 by his predecessor. Imran Khan because the spy chief confronted him with evidence of corruption involving his wife.
Munir served as head of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), having been replaced by Lt. Gen. Faiz Hameed in 2019 when Khan was at the helm.
“I say this with full responsibility that the incumbent Army Chief (Munir) when he was DG ISI, told the then Prime Minister (Khan) that his wife Bushra Bibi was involved in corruption. He said that based on facts,” Prime Minister Sharif said during a speech to the National Assembly on Monday.
“But obviously Khan got mad and didn’t like it. And the rest is history,” the prime minister said.
Khan, the chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, in a recent tweet dismissed the contents of a recent report by ‘The Daily Telegraph’ newspaper in the UK, which claimed that Munir had been deposed by Khan due to personal differences. .
The report claimed Khan removed Munir in June 2019, eight months after his appointment, because he wanted to investigate his wife and entourage for corruption. “The article claims that I made General Asim resign as DG ISI because he showed me the corruption cases of my wife Bushra Begum. It is completely false. General Asim also didn’t show me proof of my wife’s corruption and I didn’t make him resign because of it,” Khan tweeted.
On May 9, Khan, 70, was arrested by Pakistan Rangers paramilitaries in a corruption case while at the High Court premises in Islamabad, sparking unrest across the country. .
For the first time in Pakistan’s history, protesters stormed the army headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi and also burned down the house of a corps commander in Lahore. Police have killed 10 people in violent clashes, while Khan’s party says 40 of its staff lost their lives in gunfire from security personnel.
The National Assembly, the lower house of Pakistan’s parliament, on Monday passed a resolution pledging to try the May 9 rioters, who were implicated in attacks on military and state facilities, under existing laws, including the the army and the anti-terrorism law.
The resolution, which was proposed by Defense Minister Khawaja Asif, passed the House after a majority of lawmakers voted in favor.
Khan, a cricketer-turned-politician, was ousted from power in April last year after losing a vote of no confidence in his leadership, which he said was part of a plot led by the United States targeting him because of his independent foreign policy decisions on Russia. , China and Afghanistan.
Munir served as head of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), having been replaced by Lt. Gen. Faiz Hameed in 2019 when Khan was at the helm.
“I say this with full responsibility that the incumbent Army Chief (Munir) when he was DG ISI, told the then Prime Minister (Khan) that his wife Bushra Bibi was involved in corruption. He said that based on facts,” Prime Minister Sharif said during a speech to the National Assembly on Monday.
“But obviously Khan got mad and didn’t like it. And the rest is history,” the prime minister said.
Khan, the chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, in a recent tweet dismissed the contents of a recent report by ‘The Daily Telegraph’ newspaper in the UK, which claimed that Munir had been deposed by Khan due to personal differences. .
The report claimed Khan removed Munir in June 2019, eight months after his appointment, because he wanted to investigate his wife and entourage for corruption. “The article claims that I made General Asim resign as DG ISI because he showed me the corruption cases of my wife Bushra Begum. It is completely false. General Asim also didn’t show me proof of my wife’s corruption and I didn’t make him resign because of it,” Khan tweeted.
On May 9, Khan, 70, was arrested by Pakistan Rangers paramilitaries in a corruption case while at the High Court premises in Islamabad, sparking unrest across the country. .
For the first time in Pakistan’s history, protesters stormed the army headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi and also burned down the house of a corps commander in Lahore. Police have killed 10 people in violent clashes, while Khan’s party says 40 of its staff lost their lives in gunfire from security personnel.
The National Assembly, the lower house of Pakistan’s parliament, on Monday passed a resolution pledging to try the May 9 rioters, who were implicated in attacks on military and state facilities, under existing laws, including the the army and the anti-terrorism law.
The resolution, which was proposed by Defense Minister Khawaja Asif, passed the House after a majority of lawmakers voted in favor.
Khan, a cricketer-turned-politician, was ousted from power in April last year after losing a vote of no confidence in his leadership, which he said was part of a plot led by the United States targeting him because of his independent foreign policy decisions on Russia. , China and Afghanistan.
