Faizabad sit-in: Faiz denies allegations of conspiring against PML-N govt
Pakistan
Says he held talks with TLP on govt instructions
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News/News Desk) – Former spymaster Lt-Gen (retd) Faiz Hameed refuted the allegations of conspiring against the then PML-N government in connection with the developments surrounding around Faizabad sit-in staged in 2017 by late Khadim Hussain Rizvi-led Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP).
Sources say Faiz told the inquiry commission in his recorded statement that he held talks with the TLP on the instruction of government.
Faiz was DG Counter Intelligence in the ISI – Pakistan’s premier spy agency – at the time the sit-in was held. Later he went to head the organisation after the PTI founding chairman being the country’s prime minister removed the current army chief Gen Asim Munir from the post.
He had earlier failed to comply with the first notice and didn’t appear for questioning, resulting in the issuance of an another one.
The inquiry commission had also summoned PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif, who was serving as the Punjab chief minister back then, on Jan 3, but he instead requested that the questionnaire prepared for him should be shared so that he could provide detailed replies.
It had previously interviewed the then prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Ahsan Iqbal who was part of his cabinet as interior minister.
THE INQUIRY COMMISSION
In November last year, the federal government had formed the three-member commission after the Supreme Court rejected a fact-finding committee authorised Islamabad to investigate the matter.
The commission constituted under Section 3 of the Pakistan Commission of Inquiry Act, 2017, is mandated with investigating the sit-in to identify those who planned, financed, and supported the affair that disrupted lives in Rawalpindi and Islamabad in November 2017.
“[The commission] will fix responsibility of any person and/or government officers including those working with intelligence agencies; determine as to whether any disciplinary proceedings or other legal action is required to be taken against any of the aforesaid, if found involved," read the commission’s terms of reference (ToRs).
A Justice Qazi Faez Isa-led bench in February 2019 had announced a famous verdict which thrashed the role of intelligence agencies in the affair. The judgment later led to filing of a presidential reference against him in attempt to remove him from the country’s top court.
However, he managed to survive the bid and assumed the office of chief justice last year.
One of first moves after becoming the Supreme Court chief justice was listing for hearing the petitions against the February 2019 verdict. But most of the petitioners challenging the judgment started withdrawing their pleas as a three-member bench led by the chief justice took up the case.
