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In a first, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General (DG) Major General Babar Iftikhar and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lt Gen Nadeem Ahmed Anjum addressed a press conference together in Rawalpindi. The subject of the press conference was the recent killing of journalist Arshad Sharif in Kenya.
The DG ISI clarified that the press conference was conducted to shed light on the facts of the case so that “facts, fiction and opinion can be differentiated”.
Since it is unprecedented for a DG ISI to address the nation, he clarified that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had been “specially informed” about the sensitivity of the press conference.
He said that it is necessary to pinpoint the factors involved in the building of a particular narrative, and people are being misled.
“The chief of army staff was also targeted and faced criticism. An attempt was made to create a divide in society.”
DG ISI then called Sharif’s death an “unfortunate incident”. He further said that the journalist was an “icon of journalism in Pakistan”.
Gen Iftikhar then said that the connection between Sharif’s death and the alleged cypher — which PTI chief Imran Khan has repeatedly called evidence of a foreign conspiracy for his ouster — needs to be looked at.
Talking about the cypher, Gen Iftikhar said that the army chief had discussed it with Imran on March 11 when the latter had termed it to be “not a big thing”.
“It was surprising for us when on March 27 a piece of paper was waved and an attempt was made to build a that was far from reality.”
DG ISI said that the army did its due diligence when it came to the cypher and then the ISPR informed the National Security Committee that no proof was found regarding any conspiracy against the PTI government.
“This is all part of the record. We wanted to bring this to the public. And we had left the decision to the-then government.”
Gen Iftikhar then said that even though this information had been with the previous government, rumours continued to spread for the sake of political mileage and the Pakistan Army was also targeted by this rumour mill.
According to DG ISI, at this time Sharif and other journalists were fed a particular narrative and attempts were made to defame Pakistan.
“In this media trial, ARY News played the role of a spin doctor in targeting the army and promoting a false narrative […] the NSC meeting was presented in the wrong context.”
Gen Iftikhar stated that the point of spreading these rumours and this narrative was the expectation that the army would now intervene in domestic politics.
“The word neutral and apolitical was turned into abuse. To all this baseless narrative, the army chief and the institution showed restraint and we tried our level best that politicians sit together to resolve their issues.” According to DG ISI, Sharif had made some strong statements regarding the army at that time but neither did the members of the institution resent him for it back then nor do they have any such sentiments about that now.
It was also revealed during the press conference that in August, the KP government had received a threat letter from a splinter group of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan stating that they were looking to target Sharif.
He said that the KP government had shared no information about the letter with the institution or discussed how they got their hands on the information regarding the TTP’s plan. “There were reports that he (Sharif) did not want to leave the country but he kept being reminded that he was facing a threat” to his life,” Gen Iftikhar said.
He said that when ARY News head Ammad Yousuf was arrested in August, it emerged that ARY CEO Salman Iqbal had asked the former to send Sharif abroad as soon as possible.
The DG ISPR then said that a manager in the ARY Group booked a ticket for Sharif for Dubai, according to which he was supposed to be back on September 9.
“On Aug 10, Sharif left Peshawar airport through PK-637 for Dubai. He was provided complete protocol by the KP government,” he said, adding that the late journalist was escorted by KP officers to the airport.
“Arshad remained in the UAE until he had a valid visa. He left for Kenya when his visa for Dubai expired.”
DG ISPR said that there is no evidence suggesting that Arshad was “forced” to leave Dubai at a government level. He then raised the question about who it really was that made Arshad believe that he not only had to leave the UAE but that he would still not be safe in Pakistan and that Kenya was his safest bet.
DG ISPR also raised further important questions, such as who processed the journalist’s documents in the UAE, and who looked after his accommodation.
He also questioned who was in contact with Sharif from Pakistan and who was hosting him in Kenya.
“Kenyan police accepted their mistake and it has to be examined whether this is a case of mistaken identity or one of a targeted killing. Several questions have to be answered,” he said, calling for a “transparent and fair probe”.
The members of the press conference said that ARY CEO Salqbal should be brought back to Pakistan as his name keeps emerging surrounding Arshad Sharif’s killing.
“It has to be determined who exactly benefitted from his killing,” he said, adding that since the incident has happened a narrative is being built that the army somehow had to benefit from the journalist’s murder.
After posing these pertinent questions, the DG said that the government has been requested to form a high-level commission to look into these matters.
“It’s your responsibility now to unearth the facts and bring them to light. We have to wait for the report from the inquiry commission. Until the report is released, it is not appropriate to make allegations”.
