DG ISPR Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry says military should not be dragged into political matters
\nRAWALPINDI
\nDirector General of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, on Friday said that the Pakistan Army has no interest in holding talks with political parties, stressing that the military should not be dragged into political affairs.
\nSpeaking to BBC Urdu, the DG ISPR clarified that the armed forces engage only with the state \u2014 a state that is constituted under the Constitution of Pakistan and formed in cooperation with political parties.
\n\u201cWe speak to the state of Pakistan \u2014 the state formed under the Constitution with political parties,\u201d he said. \u201cWhatever government is in place at any given time, that is the state. And the Pakistan Army operates under that state.\u201d
\nHe reiterated that the Pakistan Armed Forces perform their duties within the framework of the Constitution and serve the state, regardless of which political party is in power. He appealed to all quarters to avoid involving the armed forces in political matters, reaffirming the institution\u2019s apolitical stance.
\nFurthermore, DG ISPR Chaudhry said that numerous rumours and assumptions are deliberately spread against the armed forces for political purposes. He said that one such rumour was that the army does not perform its duties and is involved in politics.
\n\u201cWhen Ma\u2019rakah-e-Haq came, did the army perform its duties or not?\u201d he asked, affirming that the armed forces remain fully focused on their professional responsibilities.
\n\u201cOur commitment lies with the people, regional integrity, sovereignty, and the protection of Pakistanis. This is the work the army does,\u201d he said.
\nHe questioned whether the nation had, at any point, felt the absence of the army in fulfilling its role. \u201cNo, absolutely not,\u201d he said.
\nLt Gen Chaudhry reiterated that the armed forces have always maintained a clear position that it is the job of politicians to engage in dialogue among themselves. \u201cThe Pakistan Armed Forces must not be dragged into politics,\u201d he emphasised.
\nHe also questioned why the name of the military leadership is brought up during periods of political instability. \u201cThis is a question that should be asked of the politicians,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cThis question should be directed at those political figures or parties that attempt to make the army controversial,\u201d the DG ISPR said. \u201cPerhaps it is their own incompetence or weaknesses that they do not want to confront.\u201d
\nLt Gen Chaudhry further said that the Pakistan Army remained committed to supporting the government and public whenever called upon.
\n\u201cWhen polio teams are deployed, the army accompanies them. When WAPDA officials need to inspect electricity meters, they seek military support,\u201d he noted.
\n\u201cDuring my own service, I have even helped clean canals in this country. We are the people\u2019s army. Whenever the government asks, we respond to the best of our ability.\u201d
\nResponding to a question about the army\u2019s deployment in provinces, he said that the military was performing duties in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan on the instructions of the provincial governments.
\n\u201cWe do not make these decisions ourselves; it is the political leadership that decides where the military should be deployed.\u201d
\nIndian disinformation campaign
\nSpeaking about the propaganda being spread against the military, the DG ISPR said the notion that the people of Balochistan were not with the Pakistan Army was Indian propaganda.
\nHe said: \u201cThose sitting with strategic misconceptions must clear their minds.\u201d
\n\u201cSuch narratives are being spread by people working on Indian payroll, promoting misguided ideas. India\u2019s intelligence agency, RAW, has created thousands of fake social media accounts operating from Europe,\u201d he said, adding that these accounts aim to falsely portray that there is anti-Pakistan sentiment in Balochistan.
\nMissing persons issue
\nIn response to a question about the missing persons issue, the DG ISPR said: \u201cWe must first differentiate between narratives \u2014 truth versus propaganda. Is the issue of missing persons unique to Pakistan? No, it is not.\u201d
\n\u201cThere are hundreds of thousands of missing persons in India. The UK and the United States also have missing persons. Pakistan now has a dedicated commission on missing persons,\u201d he noted.
\nThe government was working diligently to trace every single missing person, he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DG ISPR Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry says military should not be dragged into political matters RAWALPINDI Director General of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, on Friday said that the Pakistan Army has no interest in holding talks with political parties, stressing that the military should not be dragged into …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":74828,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82931"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82931\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82941,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82931\/revisions\/82941"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}