Imran Khan knowingly tried to delay the extension of Pak Army chief: Shehbaz Sharif

Islamabad, March 23 (IANS) Leader of the Pakistan Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif believes Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan had knowingly tried to delay the extension in the tenure of the Pak Army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, and has claimed that while his party always respected the military, the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) was behind a social media campaign targeting the armed forces, Dawn reported.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president recalled that when Prime mInister Khan tried to extend the army chief's tenure, the notification had to be redrafted three times.

While Sharif admitted he had no solid information to back up his claims, it was his considered opinion that the Prime Minister intentionally tried to make the process of extension 'controversial'.

"The matter eventually went to the Supreme Court...in the past army chiefs have been awarded extensions in service... all they had to do was copy-paste (from the previous summary). No, this was all done as a deception, it was a fraud perpetrated by Imran Khan Niazi. He wanted to delay it, make a controversy out of it," the opposition leader said.

Separately, while addressing a press conference on Tuesday, Sharif forcefully refuted the allegations that his party was behind an ongoing social media campaign against the army.

Instead, he accused the ruling PTI of maligning the armed forces, saying that video clips featuring Prime Minister Khan and his party members speaking out against the institution were available on YouTube, Dawn reported.

Accompanied with senior party leaders at the news conference, the PML-N president said a video clip of a PTI MNA had recently surfaced where she could be heard "spewing venom" against the Pakistan Army.

Sharif said that one could watch videos on YouTube that featured Khan using the "derogatory" language against the army. "Nawaz Sharif never talked like this," he added.