Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General (DG) Major General Asif Ghafoor has said that Pakistan Army is not meddling in politics as it is busy in ensuring the security of the country.
“Marches and sit-ins are a political activity and the army, as a state institution, has nothing to do with them,” he told a private media outlet and added that it had also supported the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government during the 126-day sit-in staged by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in 2014.
“The army had followed the government’s instructions at that time and as an institution, had deployed troops for the security of important buildings and performed other tasks assigned by the government,” the military spokesperson said.
“The army follows the government’s orders,” he said while talking about the military’s deployment during the general elections and added it was only for security reasons.
“The work we are involved in does not allow us to become a part of any such [political] activity,” he said in an apparent response to the allegations levelled by Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman regarding the military’s involvement in politics.
The ISPR chief further said that the army’s primary focus was ensuring national security and they would not allow any efforts to harm national stability. “We will always support the government within the ambit of the constitution.”
