Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said he has not decided about the extension of Chief of the Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa’s tenure, Dawn news reported.
“The current year has just started and November is far away. Then why is there worry about extension in the tenure of the army chief?” the Prime Minister said in an interview, adding that he enjoyed an unprecedented relationship with the military leadership.
When asked, in the context of rumours of a possible deal between the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and military to send his government packing, whether he felt threatened from any quarters, the Prime Minister said he personally was not under any kind of pressure.
kHan added that he enjoyed the support of government allies and expressed the confidence that his government would complete its mandated five years.
Talking about his party’s quest for accountability, he said major opposition figures had not yet been tried on corruption charges and still roamed free because of weak prosecution, Dawn news reported.
He said the National Accountability Bureau would take cases before the court but they were not being prosecuted.
Khan admitted that not proceeding against opposition leaders despite there being evidence of corruption against them could be termed his government’s greatest shortcoming, but appeared hopeful that PML-N leader Shehbaz Sharif would not escape punishment in the fresh case brought against him by the Federal Investigation Agency.
He termed the ruling PTI’s defeat in the recent local government elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa “a big loss”, and when asked how the party planned to ensure success in the local government elections in Punjab province, Khan reposed confidence in Chief Minister Punjab Usman Buzdar and hoped that his party would have a better showing.
