Sacked minister should have stopped publication of Dawn story on 'government-army rift', says Pakistan

NEW DELHI: Pakistan's government said the information minister it sacked on Saturday should have stopped publication of a Dawn story that alleged a rift at a high level security meeting between the civilian government and the army on cracking down on terrorists, Pakistani media reports today.

On Saturday, the government sacked information minister Pervaiz Rashid saying that "initial evidence" was against him in the leak of what it called sensitive information about a high profile national security meeting. And yesterday, the country's interior minister said the sacked minister should have stopped the story from being published.

"Some documented and undocumented records involving Pervaiz Rasheed say the reporter contacted him for comments about a story regarding [Punjab Chief Minister] Shahbaz Sharif and the ISI chief," said Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar, at a press conference widely reported by Pakistani media today.

Nisar was referring to a bit in the story which said that "an extraordinary verbal confrontation between Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and the ISI DG" Rizwan Akhtar.

"Addressing Gen Akhtar, the younger Sharif complained that whenever action has been taken against certain groups by civilian authorities, the security establishment has worked behind the scenes to set the arrested free,"the Dawn story said.

Yesterday, Nisar said that information minister Rasheed had apparently summoned Cyril Almeida, the Dawn journalist who wrote the story, to his office.

"Pervaiz Rasheed called the reporter into his office. Through my entire investigation... I reached the conclusion that Pervaiz Rasheed should have told the reporter that this story is wrong, 'Do not publish this story in view of national interest'," Nisar said at yesterday's press conference, Dawn reported today.

"He should have spoken to [Dawn Editor] Zaffar Abbas, Dawn's management or the government. So there is a lapse. He had a duty as information minister when these decisions [his resignation] were made... He should have understood the implications of the story and stopped it," Nasir said further.

The Pakistan government has continually said the Dawn story is false, that there was no clash between Shahbaz Sharif and the ISI chief, and that it is a lie that the foreign secretary said Pakistan stands isolated in the world. Dawn had said the foreign secretary, who was present at the meeting, said Pakistan risked being isolated globally because of inaction on terror.

"The story says there was a bitter exchange between the ISI chief and CM Shahbaz. This is not true. There was no such meeting... Where the foreign secretary made a briefing. The next day, there was a meeting and I was in the meeting. The foreign secretary gave a briefing in this meeting, but there was no bitterness," Nisar said yesterday.

He added that both the government and the military are on the same page about action against '"non-state actors".

"When it comes to non-state actors, there has been no contradiction. There has always been consensus...The foreign secretary is a competent person. He did say India is trying to isolate Pakistan, but never said Pakistan is isolated. His words were distorted and broadcast to the whole world. The country's national interest has been compromised," Nisar said.

Nisar further reportedly said that he would get to the bottom of it" to find out who is responsible.

"There is a unanimous agreement: whoever has leaked this false news should be brought in front of the nation. Who has leaked this story? Who fabricated this? Pakistan's national narrative is being compromised by a false report," Nisar said.