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After distancing himself from the former spy chief following news of his court-martial, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan on Thursday welcomed 'internal accountability' process initiated by the military and called for across-the-board action, as reported by Dawn.
He was speaking to the media at Adiala jail after a hearing in a 190 million pounds corruption case on Thursday. "If Faiz Hameed was involved, it should be investigated," the PTI chief said while referring to Defence Minister Khawaja Asif's statement on retired Lt Gen Faiz Hameed's alleged involvement in the May 9 protests, Dawn reported. Hameed was the head of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency during Khan's tenure as Prime Minister. In another development, two more officials of the Punjab Prisons Department were arrested as part of the investigation to find alleged facilitators of Khan's imprisonment. Khan argued that the May 9 protests started after his 'illegal' arrest at the Islamabad High Court, and demanded an investigation into the same, while suggesting that those who ordered his arrest were responsible for the violent protests, Dawn reported. He also claimed that the arsonists could be identified through CCTV footage, which he believes would exonerate him of all charges. The former PM further alleged that the May 9 protests were part of a 'London Plan,' aimed at toppling his government and accused the chief justice of Pakistan, the IHC chief justice, and the chief election commissioner of being involved in this plot. He pointed out that the former Rawalpindi commissioner also exposed rigging in the February 8 elections, as reported by Dawn. At the time of Khan's ouster, Umar Atta Bandial was the chief justice of Pakistan, and Justice Athar Minallah had not been elevated to the Supreme Court and was still heading the Islamabad High Court. Khan also claimed that former army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa conspired against the PTI government to extend his tenure and that he removed Faiz Hameed from the post of ISI chief on the demands of Nawaz Sharif and Shehbaz Sharif, which created a rift between the prime minister's office and the army chief, Dawn reported. Khan said that he wanted Hameed to retain his post because of his connections with the Taliban regime, as reported by Dawn. Following the detention of a former deputy superintendent on Wednesday for allegedly acting as a 'messenger' for the jailed PTI leader, law enforcement authorities have taken two more officials into custody as part of their investigation. One of them is a retired deputy superintendent, while the other is an assistant in the office of the Deputy Inspector General of Prisons (Rawalpindi Region). As per sources, the exact role of the assistant cannot be ascertained, Dawn reported. The sources said that the two orderlies and three warders who worked under the former deputy superintendent during his posting at Adiala jail have also been included in the investigation. Meanwhile, surveillance of the barracks where the PTI chief had been incarcerated was further increased and additional staff were deployed, Dawn reported. (ANI)
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