ISLAMABAD - A big chasm in the civil-military relations surfaced on Saturday when a directive issued by the prime minister’s office in Dawn leaks matter was rejected by the military, which called the notification “incomplete”.

The prime minister, through the office order, approved withdrawal of the portfolio of Foreign Affairs to Syed Tariq Fatemi, while action was recommended against Principal Information Officer Rao Tehsin Ali under Efficiency and Discipline (E&D) Rules 1973.

The action came after a committee probing a controversial story, published by Dawn newspaper in October 2016 about a security meeting of civilian and military leadership, submitted its findings to Premier Nawaz Sharif. The inquiry report also contained committee’s recommendations on the matter.

Soon after the issuance of Saturday’s directive from the PM Office the withdrawal of Fatemi’s portfolio was formally notified while Rao Tehsin was also made officer on special duty (OSD) pending formal proceedings against him.

The notification also said that the matter relating to the daily Dawn, its editor Zaffar Abbas and reporter Cyril Almeida is being referred to All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) for necessary disciplinary action.

The APNS shall also be asked to develop a code of conduct for the print media, especially when dealing with issues relating to security of Pakistan, and to ensure that stories on issues of national importance and security are published by abiding to basic journalistic and editorial norms, the notice added.

But to everyone’s astonishment the prime minister’s action was not taken well by the military leadership.

Minutes after the issuance of his directives, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) chief through a tweet termed the action in complete disagreement to the recommendations of the inquiry committee report and came up with its outright rejection.

“Notification on Dawn leak is incomplete and not in line with recommendations by the Inquiry Board. Notification is rejected,” read the tweet by ISPR Director General Major General Asif Ghafoor.

Baffled with this strong reaction from the military, the cabinet members came up with some unimpressive justifications of the PM Office’s action.

Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan said that the PM Office notification was an inter-ministerial communication to his ministry. He said the Prime Minister’s Office could not come up with such notification on its own as it was the sole prerogative of the interior ministry.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, considered the closest confidant of the prime minister, said the PM Office action just related to Paragraph 18 of the inquiry report, giving the impression that further action would follow in the light of the other recommendations given by the probe committee on Dawn leaks.

However, there was no word from the ruling PML-N about such a strong and blunt reaction from the ISPR.

Political and defence analysts were terming the overt rejection of the prime minister’s directives in a certain matter by the ISPR as unprecedented, which had completely exposed the tiff between the civil and military leadership on a key issue.

Sources in the ruling PML-N said that since the prime minister was in Okara at the time of these developments taking place back in the capital, so on his direction both Nisar Ali and Ishaq Dar came up with some damage control measures.

But it could not be confirmed yet whether Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had any telephonic contact with the army chief.

Sources in the party said that the prime minister would likely have a huddle of close party leaders on Sunday to evaluate the situation created after the tweet of the ISPR DG.

They further said that the PM would likely contact the army chief to dilute the situation, reassuring him that the government would take appropriate action to restore the damage caused to the reputation of the armed forces by the publishing of the controversial news.

Immediately after the publication of the news story in daily Dawn on October 6 last year, the government had rejected it declaring it “fake and fabricated news”.

But the military, taking an exception to it, mounted pressure for a thorough inquiry into the matter to determine those involved in the alleged “planted story” about the meeting in which highly sensitive matters were discussed.

Faced with extreme pressure on the issue, the newspaper published an Editor’s note on October 11, 2016, taking the position that Almeida’s story “was verified, cross-checked and fact-checked.”

In the fallout of Dawn leak, Pervaiz Rasheed was sacked as information minister as the government felt he should have told the newspaper not to publish it but he failed to fulfil this responsibility.

Almeida’s name was also placed on the Exit Control List after the publication of the story, but later removed by the interior ministry after human rights and media organisations condemned the move.

Later a committee was formed, comprising officials from civilian and military side, which completed its inquiry and reported its findings to the prime minister few days ago. The government has promised to make the probe report public after completion of the necessary action and processes.