Dawn.com Published October 27, 2022 Updated 5 minutes ago
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Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Major General Babar Iftikhar addresses a press conference in Rawalpindi on Thursday. – DawnNewsTV
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Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General (DG) Major General Babar Iftikhar is addressing a press conference in Rawalpindi.
At the outset of his press conference, Gen Iftikhar said the purpose of today's media talk was to shed light on the killing of journalist Arshad Sharif in Kenya and the circumstances surrounding it.
This press conference is being held in the context of presenting facts so that "facts, fiction and opinion can be differentiated", he said, adding that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had been "specially informed" about the sensitivity of the press conference.
Besides, it is necessary to determine the factors due to which a particular narrative is being built and people are being misled, he said.
"The chief of army staff was also targeted and faced criticism. An attempt was made to create a divide in society."
He said that Sharif's death was an "unfortunate incident" and called him an "icon of journalism in Pakistan". He noted that members of the late journalist's family had served in the army, adding that he always felt the pain of martyred officers.
Gen Iftikhar went on to say that Sharif's popularity was based on being an investigative journalist and when the cypher — which PTI chief Imran Khan has touted as evidence of a foreign conspiracy to oust his government — surfaced, he conducted several programmes on the issue.
He held several meetings with the former premier and interviewed him, the DG ISPR said. "As a result, it was stated that he was shown meeting minutes and the cypher."
The facts behind the cypher and Sharif's death have to be determined, he said.
Talking about the cypher, Gen Iftikhar said that the army chief had discussed it with Imran on March 11 when the latter had termed it to be "not a big thing".
"It was surprising for us when on March 27 a piece of paper was waved and an attempt was made to build a that was far from reality."
He said that several facts had come to light regarding the cypher revealing the "baseless and unfounded" narrative surrounding it. The ISPR informed the National Security Committee that no proof was found regarding the conspiracy against the PTI government, he said, adding that the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) also did not find any evidence regarding the conspiracy.
"This is all part of the record. We wanted to bring this to the public. And we left the decision to the-then government."
Presser is being held in the context of presenting facts so that "facts, fiction and opinion can be differentiated", he says.
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