They said that a formal notification is expected in the next 24 to 48 hours in case the ongoing negotiations bring fruitful results. Minister for Interior Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has also been advised by the senior party leadership to deal with the issue calmly.
They said the military wants complete implementation of the enquiry committee report's recommendations including publicly identifying those responsible for the planted story mentioned in the report.
The sources further said that the government wanted the military to delete the tweet by Director General Inter-Services Intelligence (ISPR) Major General Asif Ghafoor in which he rejected the Prime Minister office's order, describing it as "incomplete and not in line with recommendations by the Inquiry Board". But the military is neither ready to delete the tweet nor is it willing to compromise its position due to the sensitivity of the issue which involves national security, they maintained.
Sources within the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, who requested not to be named as they have been instructed by the leadership not to make public comments on the subject, said deliberations were continuing both within the government and with the military to settle the matter amicably. They said that the Prime Minister Office's order was not a notification as a formal notification will be issued by the Ministry of Interior, adding the PM's office order was only an action on the consensus recommendation of the enquiry committee report.
On April 29, 2017, the Prime Minister office through an order removed Special Assistant on Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatemi and Principal Information Officer (PIO) of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Rao Tehsin Ali. But both Fatemi and Tehsin rejected the allegations levelled against them in the report - Fatemi through a letter to his erstwhile colleagues in the Foreign Office and Tehsin has decided to challenge the allegations against him in the court.
Former Minister for Information and Broadcasting Pervez Rashid, the first casualty following the publication of the controversial story in Dawn on 6 October, 2016, denied the allegations in his first public comment on the matter on Thursday, saying "It is not the responsibility of the information minister to block any news from being published".
"If the job of an information minister is to stop the publication of stories, then this should be included in the curriculum of the journalism students at the universities", Rashid added. According to Brigadier Asad Munir (Retd), senior defence analyst, the military's anger was understandable as implementation of the recommendations of the enquiry committee had been agreed. He stated that there was an indication that the government will address reservations of the military in the expected notification.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2017