Ahsan Iqbal, the Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives, has revealed that the deal with the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan was finalised before it was shown to then-prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.
According to the minister’s statement, former Inter Services Intelligence director general Lt-Gen (retd) Faiz Hamid had made the pact with the protesting party before seeking then-premier’s nod.
The minister made this revelation before the Faizabad sit-in inquiry commission, constituted on the Supreme Court’s orders following the case pertaining to the 2017 sit-in protest at Faizabad led by former TLP chief Khadim Hussain Rizvi. Iqbal, in the report publicised by the inquiry commission, added that former PM Abbasi had objected to the agreement after he saw it and also did not agree with the promise regarding then-law minister Zahid Hamid’s resignation.
The then-premier also objected to Hamid’s name in the contract with TLP. At the time, Hamid was heading ISI’s counter intelligence wing and held the rank of a major general.
However, the prime minister was told that the agreement has been finalised, signed and cannot be withdrawn, Iqbal said, apprising the commission.
In his statement to the commission, former interior secretary Arshad Mirza said he, when he was called to the PM Secretariat, witnessed tension between Abbasi and then-Punjab chief minister Shehbaz Sharif.
