Former Prime Minister and leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has confirmed that former Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa did indeed ask for an extension from the incumbent government.
Talking on Geo News’ programme ‘Capital Talk’, Abbasi told senior journalist Hamid Mir that he met former Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Bajwa twice in November 2022. “I met him twice. He knows what I said,” the PML-N leader said in reply to Mir asking him if he was campaigning for an extension for the former army head.
“I can say that other than Nawaz Sharif, I was the one man who was openly against giving an extension,” he categorically said, adding that he even told his party to leave the government if it was being pressurised to grant the extension.
He said that in 2018, one year before General Bajwa got an extension in his tenure of service, he told the COAS that he will destroy his own reputation and mar the image of the institution he represents. “I said the same thing in 2022, that this extension will completely destroy the country’s systems,” he stated.
Hamid Mir then said, “So this means he was trying to get an extension.”
“He absolutely was,” Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said in reply, adding that General Bajwa had sent a “clear message” for an extension.
When asked whether his government was threatened with a martial law, the PML-N leader said that he has no knowledge of such a threat. “But, a lot of people from a lot of parties were in favour of this,” he said, emphasizing that only one man was very clear about not granting an extension. “That was Nawaz Sharif,” he said.
The host asked Shahid Khaqan Abbasi if he used to meet General Bajwa and then fly to London to talk to his party head Nawaz Sharif. “Yes I did. It was done in the country’s interest,” he replied. Elaborating further, he said that he was outside the country when he received “suspicious” news and then went to party supremo Nawaz Sharif. “I met General Bajwa with Nawaz Sharif’s permission. Then I went back and told Mian Sb what happened, gave my option and came back.”
He clarified that he told the army head that a smooth transition of command was his biggest responsibility and will be his legacy. “I repeated this to him again and again. He is now part of history. It is not appropriate to discuss this now,” he concluded.
