Staff Reporter
Rawalpindi
The matter of the military leadership meeting politicians took another turn on Wednesday night. It happened after the Pakistan Army’s media wing’s head said senior PML-N leader Mohammad Zubair held two meetings with Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa in recent weeks about former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz.
Inter-Services Intelligence chief Lt-Gen Faiz Hameed was also present during the two meetings, ISPR Director General Maj-Gen Babar Iftikhar said, both of which were “requested” by Zubair, a former Sindh governor.
The two meetings were held in the last week of August and on September 7, said Maj-Gen Iftikhar, who was speaking a news channel. The ISPR chief was asked to comment on reports of politicians meeting the military leadership and claims that no PML-N leader was part of the reported meetings.
“In both meetings he (Zubair) talked about Mian Nawaz Sharif sahib and Maryam Nawaz sahiba,” Maj-Gen Iftikhar said.
“During these meetings, whatever was discussed, the army chief made it clear to him (Zubair) that whatever their legal issues are will be solved in Pakistan’s courts, while the political issues will be solved in the parliament,” the ISPR chief added.
He said the PML-N was asked to “keep the army away from these matters”, declining to provide further details.
The two reported meetings are separate from a meeting held between 15 prominent opposition members, including senior leaders of the PML-N, and the army and ISI chiefs last week.
In that meeting, which had come days before opposition parties at a multi-party conference announced a wide-ranging anti-government movement and criticised the military’s interference in politics, the army and intelligence chiefs had counselled the opposition to refrain from dragging the military into political issues, it had emerged on Monday..
