PM seeks resignation from Mushahidullah

The Minister had given a controversial interview to BBC, the contents of which were contradicted by spokesmen of PM House and Pakistan Army.

The resignation of Ullah Khan, a senior leader of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-N party, came a day after the BBC’s Urdu service broadcast an interview in which he claimed that Zaheer-ul-Islam, former head of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency, was behind last year’s anti-government rallies organised by opposition leader Imran Khan and fiery cleric Tahir ul-Qadri.

In his interview, Mushahidullah alleged that during Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s meeting with army chief General Raheel Sharif on July 28, 2014, an audio tape was played in which Lieutenant General Zaheerul Islam could be heard giving orders to ransack the PM House and spread chaos.

In another tweet, Umar said similar allegations had been earlier levelled against DG ISI by the Defence Minister Khwaja Asif and hence it was time this trend was put to rest. On the other hand, spokesperson for the Prime Minister’s House said that no such tape exists as per Mushahidullah’s claim.

An official of the ministry of climate change said that the Prime Minister had ordered Khan back from the Maldives and asked him to resign. It was not clear whether Sharif would accept Khan’s resignation.

Pakistan has a long record of fractious relations between the military and civilian politicians, with military dictatorships accounting for around half the country’s governments since independence in 1947.

Asim Bajwa, in a twitter post, said the news stories about presence of any such tape are completely baseless and that such rumors are highly unprofessional and irresponsible.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s victory in 2013 elections marked Pakistan’s first civilian-to-civilian transfer of power.