Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif today faced a crisis when powerful army rejected his move to sack his Special Assistant on Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatemi in the Dawn leak case.
Fatemi was sacked after an inquiry committee found him guilty of leaking to Dawn newspaper vital information from a high-level security meet.
The army demanded full implementation of recommendations by a committee which probed a story in the newspaper on a rift between the army and the government.
The Sharif government was quick to go in damage control mode saying the “real notification” to implement the recommendation of probe was yet to be issued.
Army spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor said on Twitter that notification on Dawn Leak is incomplete and not in line with recommendations by the Inquiry Board. Hence, the notification is rejected.
Minutes later, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan in veiled criticism of the army said that Twitter reactions were highly dangerous for the country. He asserted that no notification was issued as yet.
In October, a columnist for Dawn wrote a front-page story about a rift between civilian and military leaderships over militant groups that operate from Pakistan but engage in proxy war against India and Afghanistan.
