The Pakistan Army is in favour of peaceful dialogue for putting an end to the protracted Faizabad Interchange sit-in, said Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Major Gen Asif Ghafoor Bajwa on Wednesday amid calls by the opposition for army’s intervention.
However, it was government’s prerogative what line of action it wanted to take on the issue, said the army’s media wing chief while speaking to ARY News.
Gen Ghafoor statement came following the suggestion of army’s intervention to settle the dispute by Opposition Leader in National Assembly Khursheed Shah. He said it was government’s constitutional right to call the army when in need.
Expressing Pak Army’s commitment to upholding the constitution, the general said the armed forces would not let anarchy prevail in the country, adding that the Pakistan Army had always worked for the welfare of the country and it would continue to do.
Gen Ghafoor said the army discouraged institutional conflicts as it made country wake; however, state’s safety outweighs all institutions.
It may be mention here that daily life in the capital has been paralysed for over two weeks now due to the protest of an alliance of religious parties, calling for the sacking of Law Minister Zahid Hamid and strict action against those behind the amendment to the Khatam-e-Nabuwwat clause ─ which had earlier been deemed a “clerical error” and subsequently rectified.
The protesters have been occupying the Faizabad Interchange which connects Rawalpindi and Islamabad through the Islamabad Expressway and Murree Road.