• PM Shehbaz says PTI Chairman Khan working on “nefarious agenda”.
• Will not allow Khan to make generals “controversial”, Zardari says.
• Khan had claimed Zardari, Shehbaz feared a “patriotic” COAS.

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari Monday castigated PTI Chairman Imran Khan for making the army chief’s appointment controversial and issuing remarks against the military.

In his speech at a jalsa in Faisalabad this Sunday, the PTI chairman said the coalition government is stalling the elections as they wanted to “appoint an army chief of their own choice.”

PM Shehbaz, in a statement on Twitter, berated Khan for maligning state institutions and said that the PTI chairman’s “despicable utterances” were hitting new levels every day.

“He is now indulging in direct mud-slinging and poisonous allegations against [the] armed forces and its leadership,” the prime minister added.

PM Shehbaz said that the PTI chairman’s “nefarious agenda is clearly to disrupt and undermine Pakistan.”

Zardari against making generals ‘controversial’

The PPP co-chairman, while referring to Khan’s speech made yesterday, said that the government will not allow him to make the institutions and generals “controversial”.

“From soldier to general, each jawan is brave and a patriot,” he added.

Terming Khan a “fitna” (mischief), the PPP leader said that his speech exposed him before the nation. He also lambasted the PTI for staging public rallies when the entire nation is trying to help flood victims.

Zardari, Nawaz ‘fear patriotic’ COAS

A day earlier, the PTI chairman said that Zardari and former premier Nawaz Sharif “fear” a strong and patriotic army chief, who could hold them accountable for the looted money they had stashed abroad.

Addressing a public meeting, he said a new army chief was going to be appointed in November this year, and they [Zaradri and Nawaz] jointly wanted to appoint a favourite [general] as the next army chief.

Both have committed corruption worth billions, and they wanted to appoint an army chief who could protect them and their corruption, Imran Khan alleged.

The PTI chair alleged that PM Shehbaz, his brother Nawaz, and Zardari had been involved in laundering the public money, and the two families had been looting the national exchequer for the last 30 years.

The PTI chair blamed the incumbent government for destroying the national economy in four months.