ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) secretary general Asad Umar on Monday said that his party chairman Imran Khan’s statement about the appointment of the next army chief by the incumbent government did not mean to cause any harm to the military.

The statement from the PTI secretary general came after the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said that the “Pakistan Army is aghast at the defamatory and uncalled for statement” by PTI chairman Imran Khan regarding the institution’s senior leadership.

Shortly after the ISPR’s statement, Umar took to Twitter and said that Imran Khan always appreciated army’s professionalism and sacrifices.

“The statement (by the party chairman Imran Khan at his party’s Faisalabad rally) didn’t mean to cause any harm to the institution,” he tweeted.

The PTI chairman had called out the government, saying that it was delaying the elections to appoint an army chief of its own and that if a patriotic chief of army staff comes in, he will not spare the incumbent rulers.

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Umar said that the context of Khan’s statement yesterday regarding the appointment of the chief of army staff (COAS) has already been clarified earlier.

“There was never intent to cause harm to the reputation of the institution or its senior leadership,” he tweeted.

He said that the party and its chairman have always appreciated the professionalism and sacrifices of the army personnel.

“The emphasis on upholding the principle of merit is consistent with the desire to protect the professionalism of the force which provides security to the nation,” he wrote on Twitter.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022