LAHORE: Following the criticism from the government over the army’s commentary on Pakistan’s economic conditions, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Major General Asif Ghafoor, on Saturday, held an important press conference.
“We will play our part as and when required but whatever we do will be done by staying in our defined legal and constitutional limits,” Major General Asif Ghafoor said while addressing a press conference.
“I made the statement in the context of a seminar held in Karachi where Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) also gave a keynote address,” he said, adding that the seminar was about security and economy. “There were many members of the business community and economists in the seminar,” he said.
“As a citizen of Pakistan, I stand by my comments,” he added. “I never said that Pakistan’s economy was unstable”.
To a question, he said that there was no threat to democracy in Pakistan and if there was any, it was due to the failure of governments to fulfill democratic requirements.
“Pakistan has done a lot to improve its security situation in the past 15 years, especially in the past eight years,” he said, adding that only trust-based relations with the international community can take us forward.
Recovery of Canadian family
Referring to the recovery of a Canadian-American family from Taliban custody, he said: “That day at 4.10pm, we were informed by an American diplomat that the family is being transferred to Pakistan. Based on the information we received, we sent our troops, used surveillance means and detected the vehicles [being used to transport the hostages].”
“We cordoned them and fired on their vehicle. Our first priority was that the captives are brought out safely. We wanted to isolate the terrorists and captives so that the captives may remain safe,” he said.
“There was a driver and three armed people,” he said. “There was also an Afghan refugee camp nearby,” where Maj Gen Ghafoor said the kidnappers had fled to.
“We have been saying repeatedly that the Afghan refugees need to be sent back. It is difficult for us to distinguish who is a terrorist and who is a refugee [in situations like these],” he said.
