Pakistan army airs concern on leak about rift with government

Raheel Sharif chaired a Corps Commanders meet at which the issue was seen as a breach of national security.

The Pakistan Army top brass on Friday expressed “serious concern” over a news leak about rift between civilian and military leaderships during a high-level meeting last week on how to deal with militancy, after which the reporter of the story was barred from leaving the country.

General Raheel Sharif, Chief of Army Staff, presided over the meeting of Corps Commanders’ Conference which was held at the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi.

“Participants expressed their serious concern over feeding of false and fabricated story of an important security meeting held at the Prime Minister’s House and viewed it as breach of national security,” according a statement by the army.

Verbal clash?

Pakistan’s leading newspaper Dawn reported last week that there was a verbal clash between the civilian government and the military establishment over the military’s covert support to militants like the Haqqani network, the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Taliban.

Following the report, journalist Cyril Almeida was put on Exit Control List, barring him from leaving Pakistan and sparking a massive outrage from journalist associations.

The newspaper has rejected allegations allegations of “vested interest and false reporting.” It came out with a scathing editorial, saying Mr. Almeida’s story on the verbal clash between government and military was “duly verified and correct piece of reporting.”

The Prime Minister’s Office has repeatedly denied any rift between the two establishments since the story came out on October 6.

The army said the participants in Friday’s meeting held a comprehensive review of internal and external security situation with particular focus on the environment at the Line of Control and operational preparedness of the army.