{"id":16353,"date":"2023-10-21T05:19:01","date_gmt":"2023-10-21T05:19:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/blocking-army-chiefs-selection-imrans-biggest-folly-says-sheikh-rashid\/"},"modified":"2023-10-21T05:19:01","modified_gmt":"2023-10-21T05:19:01","slug":"blocking-army-chiefs-selection-imrans-biggest-folly-says-sheikh-rashid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/blocking-army-chiefs-selection-imrans-biggest-folly-says-sheikh-rashid\/","title":{"rendered":"Blocking army chief\u2019s selection Imran\u2019s biggest folly, says Sheikh Rashid"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<p>RAWALPINDI: The mysterious re-emergence of \u201cmissing\u201d political leaders in TV interviews continued on Friday when the face of Awami Muslim League (AML) chief Sheikh Rashid Ahmed flashed on TV screens after a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1776399\">disappearance of 34 days<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In the interview, Mr Rashid kept professing his proximity to the army and said that attempting to block the appointment of Chief of Army Staff Gen Asim Munir was PTI Chairman Imran Khan\u2019s biggest mistake.<\/p>\n<p>As with previous interviews of former PTI leaders <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1779295\">Usman Dar<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1780225\">Sadaqat Ali Abbasi<\/a>, Mr Ahmed also denounced the May 9 attacks and called for a general amnesty for all those currently facing trial over the violent protests following Mr Khan\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1751782\">arrest<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Ahmed appeared in the interview a day after the Rawalpindi bench  of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1782051\/lhc-gives-police-more-time-till-oct-26-to-recover-sheikh-rashid\">Lahore High Court ordered police<\/a> to recover him by Oct 26. He was allegedly picked up from his residence in Rawalpindi on Sept 17, according to his lawyer.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"blockquote-level-1\">\n<p>AML leader appears in TV interview after disappearance; says May 9 attacks result of PTI leaders\u2019 narrative<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Sitting across from Muneeb Farooq on <em>Samaa TV<\/em>, the AML chief, who is usually flamboyant and candid in interviews, appeared shaken.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  w-full  w-full  media--stretch  media--embed  \">\n<p><div class=\"ast-oembed-container \" style=\"height: 100%;\"><iframe title=\"Exclusive Interview with Sheikh Rasheed | Mere Sawal with Muneeb Farooq | SAMAA TV\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PG-64ej8-gw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>When the host asked about his whereabouts, Mr Rashid said: \u201cJust assume I was on a chilla [with] a tableeghi jamaat (proselytisers). I kept reading the [Holy] Quran during these 40 days.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When asked why he wanted to give an interview, Mr Ahmed said, \u201cThis has become a tradition\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u2018Black Day\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When asked about the May 9 attack, Mr Ahmed said, \u201cIt was a black day in the country\u2019s history.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI immediately condemned that,\u201d he said, while referring to the attacks on army installations, which he called a \u201cturning point in the country\u2019s political history and the main reason for the PTI chief\u2019s downfall\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>He alleged the attacks resulted from a narrative built and propagated by certain party leaders. \u201cThis didn\u2019t happen in one day. Gathering such a huge crowd and inflicting so much damage; it can\u2019t happen in a single day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to Mr Rashid, the military would take action against \u201cnon-political actors\u201d involved in the attacks in line with their rules, but for the political workers who were dragged into the game, a general pardon should be granted.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDuring my time in solitude, I decided to start a struggle to secure a general amnesty for poor political workers who were dragged into a political game,\u201d he said, adding that he would request Chief of Army Staff Gen Asim Munir to pardon all those involved in May 9 attacks.<\/p>\n<p>Going back to 2022, when Mr Khan was ousted through a no-confidence motion, the AML chief said he was of the view that PTI shouldn\u2019t initiate a confrontation with the army.<\/p>\n<p>He disclosed that he wanted to play the role of a mediator, but Mr Khan did not allow him to do so.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Rashid said \u201cthree people\u201d were mediating between Mr Khan and the establishment, but all of them had now formed their party. He, however, only named former defence minister Pervaiz Khattak as one of the negotiators.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Imran\u2019s biggest mistake<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Commenting on PTI\u2019s long march in 2022 , the AML chief claimed the march\u2019s objectives were much more than just mobilising people. \u201cIt\u2019s not right to share those things now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When Mr Ahmed was asked why the PTI chief \u201cattempted to stop Gen Munir\u2019s appointment as COAS, he said, \u201cThis was the biggest mistake\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe, the politicians, should come out of this issue. This should be left up to the army,\u201d he said with regard to the appointment of the army chief.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThose around Mr Khan thought they had a lot of say within [the army ranks],\u201d he said, adding that those PTI leaders thought if they reached Rawalpindi, they\u2019d be supported by those officers.<\/p>\n<p><em>Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2023<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>RAWALPINDI: The mysterious re-emergence of \u201cmissing\u201d political leaders in TV interviews continued on Friday when the face of Awami Muslim League (AML) chief Sheikh Rashid Ahmed flashed on TV screens after a disappearance of 34 days. In the interview, Mr Rashid kept professing his proximity to the army and said that attempting to block the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16354,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2023\/10\/210819245d8aeb5.png?r=082014","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}