ISLAMABAD: Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General (DG) Maj-Gen Ahmed Sharif said that any dialogue with the PTI could happen only if it “earnestly apologises in front of the nation”, promises to adopt “constructive politics” and forgoes “politics of anarchy”.
The DG ISPR made the remarks in a lengthy press conference in Rawalpindi just two days before May 9 — a day that holds significant importance in the country’s political landscape as it was on this day last year when military installations came under attack following PTI founder Imran Khan’s arrest, which formed the basis of a severe state crackdown against him and his party.
In the question and answer sessions, Gen Sharif was asked if there was a possibility of any dialogue with the PTI to which he replied: “If some political mindset, leader or clique attacks its own army, causes rifts between the army and its people, insults the nation’s martyrs and issues threats and hatches propaganda, then there can be no dialogue with them.
“There is only one way back for such political anarchists that it (PTI) asks for an earnest pardon in front of the nation and promises that it will forgo politics of hate and adopt constructive [style of] politics.“In any case, such dialogue should take place between political parties. It is not appropriate for the army to be involved.”
Earlier in the session, Gen Sharif was also asked about May 9, to which he said: “Firstly, May 9 is not just the Pakistan Army’s case but the entire country’s.
“If, in any country, an attack is launched on its army, symbols of its martyrs are insulted, its founder’s house is set on fire, hatred is created between its army and public, and if the people behind it are not brought to justice, then there is a question mark on that country’s justice system.
“We believe that if we have to maintain trust in the justice system of Pakistan, then May 9 perpetrators — both the perpetrators and those commanding them — must be sentenced according to the Constitution and the law.
