National

PTI leader Naeemul Haq apologises for Tariq Fatemi tweet

May 17, 2017

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Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Naeemul Haq, said that he was sorry for claiming that Tariq Fatemi was accompanying the government delegation on China trip.

The confusion started when Naeemul Haq tweeted an old picture of the government officials, including Fatemi, meeting with Chinese nationals. Tareq Fatemi has recently been fired by the government over Dawn Leaks issue.

The tweet was retweeted by another PTI leader Shireen Mazari and during a National Assembly session, PTI’s prominent leader Shah Mehmood Qureshi also expressed his party’s reservations over Fatemi’s accompanying the PM even after his dismissal.

“Nawaz continues to deceive the nation. Tariq Fatemi accompanies him in China. So his being relieved of his duties was a lie. What a farce,” Haq had tweeted.

PTI’s reporting on Tariq Fatemi at worst seditious and diabolic or at best ignorant and incompetent pic.twitter.com/04P1KdVmi0

— Marriyum Aurangzeb (@Marriyum_A) May 16, 2017

The photo accompanying the Naeemul Haq’s tweet was from the MoU signing ceremony held in December 2016, in Beijing.

In reaction, information minister Marriyum Aurangzeb tweeted, “PTI’s reporting on Tariq Fatemi at worst seditious and diabolic or at best ignorant and incompetent.”

Fatemi, was removed from his post of adviser to the prime minister regarding the Dawn Leaks issue. The inquiry committee formed to probe Dawn Leaks in its report placed blame on Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatemi and Principal Information Officer at the Press Information Department Rao Tehsin.

Responding to PM’s orders, DG ISPR rejected this notification in a tweet as “incomplete”. The issue, however was resolved in a meeting between PM Nawaz Sharif and COAS Qamar Javed Bajwa on May 10, which also included the presence of Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and DG ISI Gen Naveed Mukhtar.