ISLAMABAD - Former prime minister Imran Khan on Tuesday distanced himself from the matter of arrest of former director general of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) retired Lt Gen Faiz Hameed by the military but demanded formation of a judicial commission to probe into May 9 riots if the former spymaster is being linked with these incidents.
The jailed Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Khan called the arrest of Gen Hameed as an internal issue of the military and a purely army’s matter with no link to PTI and clarified that his party had no political connections with him.
Gen Hameed held the office of DG ISI from 2019 to 2021 when Khan was the prime minister of the country and the former was once considered a close aide to the latter.
On Monday, the media wing of the Pakistan Army had said that the former intelligence chief had been taken into military custody and the process of court martial had been initiated against him on charges of corruption and misconduct.
The PTI chief said it was right time to form the judicial commission to probe into May 9 violence if Gen Hameed was being linked with such incidents and CCTV footage of the day should be brought on the table as evidence, PTI lawyer Intazar Hussain Panjutha told reporters following a meeting of ex-premier with senior lawyers at Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi.
Khan was referring to the statement of Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif that the former ISI chief had links with the May 9 mayhem.
The incarcerated politician also said the critics of PTI had no evidence of any involvement of the party in this violence.
Panjutha conveyed Khan’s concerns over the conduct of Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa and said he had de-seated the three PTI lawmakers by reinstating the same number of PML-N MNAs in a controversial ruling, the other day.
He added that Khan alleged that Chief Justice Isa had prejudices against his party as he was not taking up PTI petitions and giving relief to the party’s opponents.