Here it is bit modified.
After a meeting between
Pakistan's prime minister Nawaz Sharif and its army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa
today, it seems the issue of Dawn leaks has finally settled now. According to
media reports in Pakistan, its army's public relations wing has issued a
clarification that the Dawn leaks issue is closed chapter after it found the
action taken by the government on the inquiry committee's report satisfactory
and withdraws its earlier tweet that had rejected a notification issued last
month by the Nawaz Sharif government over action taken in the matter.
The Dawn leaks case refers to
a front page story by the Daily Dawn's columnist Cyril Almeida's last October,
quoting government sources, on rift between Pakistan's civilian and military
establishment over crackdown on Pakistan's terrorist groups active in India and
Afghanistan. The article had further written quoting government source that
this dichotomy was forcing Pakistan to a diplomatic isolation. It had caused
quite a stir in India's volatile neighbourhood and had seen a standoff between
its all powerful military and Nawaz Sharif's government that threatened to
snowball if something was not done to appease it.
And the action was swift.
Official rebuttal were issued. Almeida was banned from travelling abroad.
Pakistan's information minister Pervaiz Rasheed was forced to step down pending
an inquiry, a move that has been endorsed by the inquiry committee that was
formed in November to investigate the matter. This is the only addition to the
notification issued today otherwise contents of both notifications are
similar.
No one knows and nobody will
probably ever know what transpired in the top-level meeting between Sharif and
Bajwa as the contents of the inquiry committee report that the government has
decided not to make public. But its outcome is exactly opposite to the Pak
army's earlier stand after the Sharif government had announced last month its
follow-up action to be taken on the inquiry committee report.
After the Sharif-Bajwa
meeting today, the Ministry of Interior has issued another notification, that
looks more or less same, as the one issued last month and was rejected by the
army saying it was not as per the recommendations of the inquiry committee
report. On April 29, Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor had tweeted expressing Pak army's
displeasure over the Dawn leaks report. After today's development, the tweet
has become infructuous.
Maj Gen Asif GhafoorVerified account
@OfficialDGISPR
Notification on Dawn Leak is
incomplete and not in line with recommendations by the Inquiry Board.
Notification is rejected.
3:22 PM - 29 Apr 2017
Nawaz Sharif has accepted the
recommendations of the Dawn Leaks Inquiry Committee and has issued directions
of disciplinary action to be taken against the daily, its editor Zaffar Abbas
and its reporter and columnist Cyril Almeida. The notification issued by
Pakistan's Ministry of Interior also says that "the Dawn Leaks Inquiry
Committee recommends that the role of Daily Dawn, Zaffar Abbas and Cyril
Almeida may be referred to All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) with a
direction to take disciplinary action against them."
Besides this disciplinary
action, the inquiry committee has also emphasized on the need to develop
"a code of conduct for print media especially when dealing with issues
related to security of Pakistan."
The Dawn leaks report has cost
another high profile person his office. Nawaz Sharif had to sack his Special
Assistant on Foreign Affairs, Tariq Fatemi, for leaking information of the high
level civilian-military leadership meeting. Also, disciplinary action has been
recommended against a the principal information officer of Pakistan's foreign
ministry.
©SantoshChaubey