---- ISPR rejects prime minister's allegations
In a statement issued here on Wednesday, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said: "There can be no allegation more serious than what the honourable Prime Minister has levelled against CoAS and DG ISI and has unfortunately charged the officers for violation of the Constitution of the Country. This has very serious ramifications with potentially grievous consequences for the Country".
The state-run news agency, Associated Press of Pakistan, issued a statement on January 9, 2012 providing details of the interview given by the Prime Minister of Pakistan to The People's Daily Online of China at a time when the Chief of Army Staff (CoAS) General Ashfaque Parvez Kayani was on an official visit to China.
In that interview, the Prime Minister, inter alia, implied that the rejoinders submitted by the CoAS and DG ISI to the Supreme Court of Pakistan in the Memo Case were unconstitutional and illegal. This part of his statement has been quoted and widely debated in the media.
The Army, in a statement, termed these allegations very serious and not factually correct. General Kayani and Lt General Shuja Pasha were cited as respondents in the petitions as such and after hearing the parties, the apex court served notices directly to the respondents; this was not objected to by the learned Attorney General for Pakistan, the press statement noted.
"The responses by the respondents were sent to the Ministry of Defence for onward submission to the SC, through Attorney General (Law Ministry). In addition to this, a letter was also dispatched to the Attorney General of Pakistan and the SC informing that the replies have been submitted to the Ministry of Defence," says the statement.
Therefore, the ISPR said that Prime Minister's allegations are unfounded as the copies of the statements of the two respondents were not forwarded directly to the SC. "Responsibility for moving summaries and obtaining approvals of competent authority thereafter lay with the relevant ministries and not with the respondents", it emphasised. The statement expressed its utter surprise by saying, "after a meeting between the Prime Minister and the CoAS, the Prime Minister had publicly stated through a press release on December 16, 2011 that the replies submitted were 'in response to the notice of the Court through proper channel and in accordance with the rules of business'".
According to the ISPR, no objections were raised before and thereafter on the legality and constitutional status of the replies, at any time, during the last more than three weeks of hearing of the case by the SC.
It also categorically stated that the CoAS and DG ISI in their response to the SC were obliged to state facts as known to them, on the Memo Issue. The issue of jurisdiction and maintainability of the petitions was between the SC and the Federation. Any expectation that CoAS will not state the facts is neither constitutional nor legal. Allegiance to State and the Constitution is and will always remain prime consideration for the respondent, who in this case has gone by the book.