Alvi states regarding Bajwa’s support for PTI “wrongly attributed”

President Arif Alvi rejected a comment “wrongly attributed” to him on Monday regarding purported support given to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) by then-army commander General (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa during the 2018 general elections.

The president has taken notice of the “wrongly credited” comment, according to a tweet from the president’s office, which also noted that it “has been cited out of relation to the context and is twisted and self-concocted.”

According to the tweet, “President Dr. Arif Alvi has taken notice of the statement falsely attributed to him about the alleged assistance provided by the former Chief of Army Staff, General (r) Qamar Javed Bajwa, and his team in the Senate, as well as their assistance to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) during the elections.”

The President’s Office issued the clarification after a local newspaper published a report in which Alvi was quoted telling journalists, business leaders, and foreign diplomats at a dinner on Saturday that “Gen (retd) Bajwa and his team” had assisted PTI Chief Imran Khan in the Senate and during elections.

The article also reported that the president said he addressed the “neutrality” of the armed forces with the army chief, adding that “if the army had abandoned politics, it was the time politicians took care of the issue”.

While addressing a query about if Imran at any time considered removing the then army leader, the newspaper continued, that the president answered “No, I don’t think so. That was a rumor”.

Alvi continued by saying that he is “still searching for an answer” as to why and when the friendship between Khan and Gen (retd) Bajwa deteriorated.

The President said that he had orally proposed that a compromise may be reached and elections might be conducted at the end of April or in May to both the government and the opposition.