Pakistan PM condemns 'disgusting' smear campaign against Army chief Gen Munir

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday strongly condemned the disgusting smear campaign against Pakistan Army chief General Asim Munir and other institutions by his predecessor Imran Khan and urged Pakistanis living abroad to raise their voices against itKhan the chief of the Pakistan TehreekeInsaf PTI party has accused Gen Munir of orchestrating the crackdown against him last week by the countrys security personnel in a corruption case The campaign against the Army chief is intolerable and a continuation of the conspiracy against the institutions Prime Minister Sharif was quoted as saying by the PM OfficeIn a tweet Sharif directly held Khan responsible for the campaign against Gen MunirPTIs disgusting smear campaign against Chief of the Army Staff General Asim Munir at the behest of Imran Niazi is deserving of the strongest condemnation he tweeted This man Khan is stooping to unprecedented lows in his desperation for power amp going to the extent of damaging the country amp undermining our armed forces amp their leadership he said in another tweetPrime Minister Sharif said the campaign against Gen Munir who he said was the first army chief to be appointed on merit in Pakistan could only be the agenda of the enemies of Pakistan Gen Munir who served as chief of the InterServices Intelligence ISI replaced Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa as the Chief of Army Staff in November last yearSharif said toxic politics was being spread as he urged patriotic Pakistanis living abroad to raise their voices against the foreignfunded campaignThe Pakistan Prime Minister also blamed Khan for dragging heads of state institutions for his dirty politics which he said was against the Constitution Strict legal action should be taken against those who instigate chaos riots and rebellion in Pakistan the premier warnedPakistani police on Sunday registered a terrorism case against Khan and over a dozen PTI leaders for indulging in vandalism attacking security personnel and creating unrest outside the judicial complex here ahead of a court hearing in a graft case involving the ousted premierClashes erupted outside the Islamabad Judicial Complex on Saturday when Khan arrived in Islamabad from Lahore to attend a muchawaited hearing in the Toshakhana caseKhan has been in the crosshairs for buying gifts including an expensive Graff wristwatch he had received as the premier at a discounted price from the state depository called Toshakhana and selling them for profitAlso read Pak police register terrorism case against exPM Imran KhanEstablished in 1974 the Toshakhana is a department under the administrative control of the Cabinet Division and stores precious gifts given to rulers parliamentarians bureaucrats and officials by heads of other governments and states and foreign dignitaries Khan was disqualified by the Election Commission of Pakistan in October last year for not sharing details of the sales The election body later filed a complaint with the district court to punish him under criminal laws for selling the gifts he had received as prime minister of the country Khan has vehemently denied those chargesMeanwhile Lahore Police on Sunday booked Khan and over 1000 PTI workers under terrorism charges in two cases The number of cases against Khan has climbed up to 97Police claimed to have recovered rifles Kalashnikovs bullets marbles and petrol bombs from his house during the search operationKhan 70yearold cricketerturnedpolitician was ousted from power in April last year after losing a noconfidence vote which he alleged was part of a USled conspiracy targeting him because of his independent foreign policy decisions on Russia China and AfghanistanSince his ouster Khan has been demanding early elections to remove what he termed an imported government led by prime minister Sharif Sharif has maintained that elections will be held later this year once the parliament completes its fiveyear tenureThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever