ISLAMABAD – Former president Asif Ali Zardari said on Sunday that those responsible for the “leaks” of a recent meeting must be punished, while those protesting on streets against the government should be pacified.
Zardari, who heads the Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians, believed “wise decisions” were required to drag the country out of the crises and avert threats to democracy.
Late on Saturday, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif relieved Information and Broadcasting Minister Pervez Rashid of his portfolio and his cabinet for lapses in the leakage of information about a security meeting held on October 6.
“Evidence available so far points to a lapse on part of information minister, who has been directed to step down from office to enable holding of an independent and detailed inquiry,” said a brief directive released by the Prime Minister’s Office on Saturday.
The report, which claimed civilian officials had warned the military to stop backing jihadist proxy fighters abroad, had caused an uproar and the journalist who wrote it was briefly hit with a travel ban.
Rashid’s removal comes at a particularly troubling time for the Sharif-led government, which is currently facing an anti-government protest led by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan.
The Supreme Court is also taking up on November 1 the hearing a case about the Panama Papers leaks, which revealed that Sharif’s family had offshore bank accounts.
In a meeting with former Interior Minister Rehman Malik in London, Zardari said that the ‘elements’ who leaked the October 6 story regarding national security must not go unpunished.
“There should be no compromise on the national security. The country has to be taken out of the prevailing crisis,” he said. http://nation.com.pk/national/31-Oct-2016/leakers-must-be-punished-says-zardari
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