Staff Reporter
Lahore
PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz on Sunday advised the director-general of the army’s media wing to “be very careful.” She said that it “does not suit the armed forces and other institutions to appear [as if] they are standing behind a political party.”
“The DG ISPR is a professional soldier and the spokesperson for the institution, he should be very careful,” she said while addressing the PML-N’s Sher Jawan Movement opening ceremony. “Imran Khan and the government benefit if they drag institutions in politics; it suits them. But it does not suit the armed forces and other institutions to appear [as if] they are standing behind a political party.
“This discrimination should not be there, they (institutions) are as much ours as theirs (government). Such precedents should not be set as it increases the divide between institutions and public.”Maryam was referring to a recent press conference by Maj Gen Babar Iftikhar, the Inter-Services Public Relations’ director general, where he had said that any attempt to link the release of Indian pilot Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman with anything other than Pakistan’s mature response as a responsible state was “disappointing” and “misleading”. Maj Gen Iftikhar’s press conference had come a day after PML-N leader Ayaz Sadiq,gested that the PTI government had released Abhinandan in capitulation, fearing an imminent attack from India. However, the DG ISPR had not named anyone.
Addressing PML-N workers, Maryam said that a government minister had made comments due to which “even the Indian prime minister is charge-sheeting us”. She went on to say that while the army spokesperson had responded to Sadiq’s remarks, he had made no reference to Fawad’s comments.
The former prime minister’s daughter urged her supporters to stand with her father Nawaz Sharif in their “struggle to get respect for the [public’s] vote”.
Maryam told PML-N workers “not to malign the uniform” and instead “expose the characters who defame” the armed forces.
She once again criticised Lt Gen Asim Continued on Page 10Saleem Bajwa, saying that the “nation wants to know how you, a salaried man, started businesses across the world”. on the floor of the National Assembly,
