Tag: Major General Faisal Naseer

  • Court sends Azam Swati on two-day physical remand for tweeting against senior military officials

    Court sends Azam Swati on two-day physical remand for tweeting against senior military officials

    Senator Azam Khan Swati of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was sent on a two-day physical remand in another case regarding controversial tweets after being arrested early Sunday morning.

    Swati was detained by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for the second time after a new case was registered against him for making controversial tweets against General Qamar Javed Bajwa and Major General Naseer.

    The FIA had requested Swati’s physical remand for eight days. Swati was taken into custody from his farmhouse located in Chak Shahzad, Islamabad.

    Reacting to the arrest of the senator, PTI Chairman Imran Khan tweeted that he was “shocked”.

    “I am shocked and appalled at how rapidly we are descending into not just a banana republic but a fascist state. How can anyone not understand the pain and suffering Senator Swati underwent with custodial torture and blackmailing video of him and his conservative wife sent to his family?” asked Khan on his party lawmaker’s arrest.

    Khan said that Swati’s “justifiable anger and frustration at the injustice meted out to him especially the doors of Supreme Court remaining closed to him despite over a fortnight of appeals by senators in support of him”.

    “So he tweets and is arrested again. Everyone must raise their voice against this state fascism,” said the PTI chief.

    Swati hurled cuss words at outgoing Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa and used offensive language against Major General Faisal Naseer.

    The PTI senator called out the name of Major General Naseer and threatened him that he would have to pay the price.

    “I will go against Major General Naseer at every platform. I will use every legal and moral forum against him,” Swati said in a social media post.

    Last month, FIA took Swati into custody from his home in Islamabad and presented him before a court after he tweeted against General Qamar Javed Bajwa.

    The senator has been granted bail in the case against surety bonds worth Rs1 million.

  • Who is Khurram Hameed Rokhri and why is PTI distancing itself from him?

    Who is Khurram Hameed Rokhri and why is PTI distancing itself from him?

    Estranged Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Major (retired) Khurram Hameed Khan Rokhri revealed on Thursday the timeline of “backchannel talks” between the PTI and the establishment, as he denounced former premier Imran Khan’s allegations against senior intelligence official Major General Faisal Naseer.

    In an interview with Hamid Mir on Geo News, Rokhri recalled that a few days after PTI leader Dr Shahbaz Gill was arrested, a meeting was held in Bani Gala where it was discussed that a new intelligence officer had been posted in Islamabad with the aim to “eliminate PTI and Chairman Imran Khan’s narrative”.

    “When Gen Faisal Naseer’s name was taken, I said hold on a minute. Now I know Gen Naseer the same way you know other people in Geo News or anyone in the media” he told Mir.

    “[PTI leader] Salman Ahmed asked me then what was the narrative… the next day they were going to a rally in Jhelum and I told Salman to tell Khan this… I will cut things short here,” he revealed.

    “So Salman tells Khan that the opinion of a close aide of yours […] about Gen Faisal Naseer […] is not the same as what people around you say. When Khan asked him who that person was, Salman replied it is Maj Khurram,” he recalled. PTI chief asked Salman to direct Rokhri to confront the officer.

    “I called the Major General and told him I wanted to meet him. When I met him, I asked the general if he had been posted [in Islamabad] for this reason,” he said. Gen Naseer told him that he was posted the day Gen Sarfraz was martyred, some 20 days back, he confirmed.

    Rokhri then recalled Faisal Naseer’s reply, “I am a professional man… why would I want to do this… Imran Khan is the leader of the biggest political party of Pakistan… he is a hero of the country… why would I want this. And if someone is telling Imran this, please go and tell him that there is nothing as such.”

    “The PTI sent me the conditions for talks, which I forwarded to the persons being named. They agreed to meet but suggested a place other than theirs or ours.”

    Rokhri added that Salman later called him to Islamabad for meeting with Imran, but he could not meet the PTI chief despite a long wait. He was called again, according to Rokhri, but he could not meet the party chief. He added that he refused to meet when he was called for the third time after the attack on Imran.

    He said he wanted to normalise the situation but refused, telling them (PTI leaders) that he would not be part of the game they had started. He quipped, “Hasn’t Alvi Sahib arranged the meeting?”

    The PTI leader said he spoke the truth about the general officer on a TV channel, but the abusive brigade started targeting him. He added that Faisal Vawda was also sincerely trying to defuse the situation, but the “abusive brigade” went after him.

    At one point during the interview, the retired major also said that Khan was being “misled” by a few people who were “roaming around him”, adding that the one well-wisher the former premier had was his sister Aleema Khan. However, he regretted that the PTI chief never listened to her.

    He added that Khan was wrongly convicted in the Toshakhana refere­nce and asserted that Gen Naseer had nothing to do with the alleged custodial torture of Shahbaz Gill.

    Meanwhile, hours after Rokhri made the startling revelations, former information minister Fawad Chaudhry questioned who he was.

    “Yeah kon hein? [Who is this?]” asked the senior PTI leader in response to a clip of journalist Hamid Mir’s programme ‘Capital Talk’ with Rokhri.

    Shahbaz Gill tweeted, “Who is this, sir? Never seen or heard of him before. God knows who will emerge as the leader of Tehreek-e-Insaf in the future.”

    On the other hand, an account with Rokhri’s name on Twitter uploaded an image of him with Fawad. It was unclear if the account belonged to the retired army officer.

    However social media users had dug up pictures of Major Rokhri with multiple leaders of PTI including Imran Khan.

    https://twitter.com/masoodch6/status/1590802075927343104?s=20&t=6Yn2Ih0BIFXvSKoiLdH7Hw

    However, PTI suspended the membership of Rokhri after he debunked party chief Imran Khan’s allegation against a senior army officer.

    “After consultation with higher party leadership, basic party membership of Major (R) Khurram Hameed Khan Rokhart has been terminated,” PTI’s Mianwali President Saleem Gul Khan said in a notification.

  • ‘I am captain who brought neutral umpires’: IK on whether he wants military out of politics or not

    ‘I am captain who brought neutral umpires’: IK on whether he wants military out of politics or not

    Chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and former Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan has said that he is the one who in the entire history of the game, brought in a neutral umpire to get fair results.

    Khan was talking on TRT World’s “The Newsmakers” with Andrea Sanke, when the anchor asked, “You want the military out of Pakistan’s politics, or do you want the military on your side in Pakistan’s politics?”

    Khan replied: “Let me say one thing. In the two hundred year history of test cricket, and international cricket, I am the captain who brought the neutral umpires. I am the one who actually brought in the neutral umpires in cricket because we wanted a fair result.”

    “You must understand, for me right now, the most important thing in Pakistan is how do we get out of the quagmire, how do we get out of this situation”, he stated.

    During the interview, Khan again mentioned the names of PM Shehbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and Major General Faisal Naseer as the minds behind the assassination attempt on his life. “We are governed by criminals”, Khan said.

    He reiterated that he wants an independent investigation. “We are a popular party in Punjab but we couldn’t get a case registered against them because the provincial police refused,” he told the host.

    “If they turned out to be innocent in the investigation so it’s fine. At least it’s my right, they almost killed me”, Khan said.

    He claimed that all the investigative agencies in the country are under these three people [Shehbaz, Sanaullah and Faisal Naseer].

    About Naveed, the gunman who shot at the former Prime Minister, Imran Khan said, “After 20 minutes of the incident, a man appears and says that I shot Imran”.

    Khan raised a question: “Who brought him on television? Police are not allowed to do this unless a proper investigation is carried out.”

    Stressing that he was more determined now, Imran Khan said that he was expecting something to happen. “I predicted this four months ago that there was a plot against me,” he said.

    Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, former prime minister and a senior leader of the ruling coalition, also spoke with The Newsmakers and called the allegations levelled by Khan tragic. “It is a tragedy that a person of Imran Khan’s stature, who served as the prime minister of the country, would stoop so low to accuse the [sitting] prime minister and intelligence officials of being behind this shooting,” he said.

    Abbasi said the shooting took place in a province that Khan’s PTI party controls and called for an investigation to ascertain the motivation behind this shooting. “The shooter has been arrested and the truth should come out. I think for Imran Khan to speculate and try to gain political points out of this is something that is very much not acceptable,” Abbasi said.

    Imran Khan rejected Abbasi’s statement, saying he does not need popularity gained by accusing others.

    Khan called on the Chief Justice (CJ) of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial to be “more assertive” when it comes to dispensing justice.

    “Justice persists when every person, even the most powerful, is brought under the rule of law. I, as the head of a province, can’t get the three people to be investigated, imagine what the situation will be for the common man,” he said, adding that PTI’s movement for “real struggle” demanded rule of law.