Says Imran did not take anything seriously
Former army chief General (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa had a long and frank discussion with senior journalists and bureaucrats during which he covered in detail the personality of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chairman Imran Khan, his politics, his government and the relationship of the army with his government.
As per the informed sources, the former army chief also talked about his relationship with former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, and he told the journalists about who ousted Nawaz Sharif and why and who brought Imran Khan to power.
He said that the best relationship of his career was with Nawaz Sharif and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. “Nawaz Sharif trusted me so much that he assigned me the task of improving relations with the United Arab Emirates. I went there and delivered,” he maintained.
In response to some questions, General (retd) Bajwa discreetly accepted that Nawaz Sharif had been wronged, and he also accepted that Nawaz Sharif had been ousted by the military establishment.
He criticised some of the policies of Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and also the Pakistani bureaucracy. “The Chinese themselves came to meet me and complained ‘we cannot work with your bureaucracy. They deliberately create problems and complications for us’,” he claimed.
The former army chief also talked about Imran Khan’s visit to Russia and said: “When I came to the meeting, the entire cabinet including Asad Umar said in unison that there should be a visit to Russia. So, I also agreed while the fact of the matter is that we do not have any trade with Russia, nor does it support us at world forums,” he added. “On the contrary, Putin used Imran Khan. He had waged a war on Ukraine, and through Imran Khan’s visit, Putin gave an impression to the world that Pakistan is with Russia in that war,” he stated.
He later termed the cypher conspiracy and the “absolutely not” narrative a blatant lie and bogus propaganda, stating that such political stunts and lies had caused damage to Pakistan.
“Two meetings were held with Imran Khan on the cypher issue, and we had fully explained to him about it. But, Imran Khan deliberately tried to cause damage to Pakistan by raising this issue for political gain,” the former army chief maintained.
“Yes! We brought Imran Khan to power, and for that purpose we went to the level so embarrassing that we were labelled as selectors. As a ‘reward’, I got the label of traitor after serving the army for so many years,” he admitted.
While talking about Lt-Gen (r) Faiz Hameed, the he said Faiz himself had come to him, adding that Faiz had requested to command the corps to join the race for the army chief.
“I agreed. But when I issued a notification to appoint Faiz Hameed as Corp Commander Peshawar and Lt-Gen Nadeem Anjum the Director General of Inter-Services Intelligence, Imran Khan stopped the notification and put us in a strange situation,” he stated.
“Now, Imran Khan is telling another lie that he was the prime minister, and the army was running the government. [But] Imran Khan used to make all the decisions himself. He selected incompetent and useless people who did not have the capacity to deliver,” he added.
He also referred to former Punjab chief minister Usman Buzdar and said: “The people of the PTI and the allied parties had been coming to me for a year. They would ask me to tell Imran Khan that this is not how the country works, and I also told Imran Khan several times to meet your disgruntled party leaders and allies and address their concerns.”
“But, he did not take anything seriously. I had also warned Imran Khan six months ago about the motion of no-confidence and told him that the military establishment cannot bear the stigma anymore and be neutral from now on,” he stated.
“We had decided to stay away from politics or government, and this decision had been taken by everyone in the Corps Commanders Conference. Imran Khan was also told that Asif Ali Zardari was very active in Islamabad, and he was asked to engage with his party leaders,” he added.
During the discussion, General (r) Qamar Javed Bajwa looked at senior journalist Hamid Mir and said: “Mir Sahib, you had written an article about the no-confidence motion a year ago, but Imran Khan did not become serious even then. And when it came, he came to me running to save him. I told him that the military had decided to be neutral. Since then, Imran Khan is angry with us and tells lies on a daily basis.”
“In the end, Imran Khan sought my help in putting the entire opposition leadership in jail. I said sorry to him and told him I cannot do that as the army chief. I told Imran Khan if I have to do all this, I have to sit in his seat,” he claimed.
General (r) Qamar Bajwa said he had told Imran Khan: “This is not our job, and it does not happen in any country. These decisions have to be made by the government and the courts. Keep us away from this.” He added: “Imran Khan was not happy with my answer.”
