Pakistan’s leading daily is facing the heat for publishing a news report about the military and ISI with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ordering authorities to take "stern action" against those responsible for publishing a "fabricated" story.
Pakistani daily Dawn in a front page article on October 6 reported citing sources that the civilian government has informed the military leadership of a growing international isolation of Pakistan due to alleged support for militancy.
After a meeting with Army chief General Raheel Sharif, Sharif ordered action against the daily.
Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif today called on Nawaz Sharif at PM House in the presence of Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan, CM Punjab Shahbaz Sharif and DG ISI Lieutenant General Rizwan Akhtar.
According to an official statement, matters pertaining to national and regional security and the publication of news story last week in Dawn newspaper was also discussed during the meeting.
"The participants of the meeting expressed concern over the publication of a fabricated news story in Daily Dawn pertaining to security issues purportedly discussed in a meeting of National Security Committee in the last week."
"The participants were unanimous that the published story was clearly violative of universally acknowledged principles of reporting on national security issues and has risked the vital state interests through inclusion of inaccurate and misleading contents which had no relevance to actual discussion and facts."
The participants felt that it was imperative that Print and Electronic media refrained itself from speculative reporting and issues of national security and interests of the state.
"Prime Minister took serious notice of the violation and directed that those responsible should be identified for stern action," according to the statement.
The daily had reported that Prime Minister had warned the army in a high-level meeting to crackdown on terrorists and directed authorities to conclude the Mumbai attack trial and the probe into the Pathankot.
The meeting was attended Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief, Gen. Rizwan Akhtar along with civilian officials.
Dawn reported that the government informed the ISI about the "growing international isolation of Pakistan and sought consensus on several key actions by the state" to reverse the situation.
The daily said the government, in a "blunt, orchestrated and unprecedented warning", asked military-led intelligence agencies "not to interfere if law enforcement acts against militant groups that are banned or until now considered off-limits for civilian action".
The Pakistan Foreign Office had vehemently rejected the report and termed it as "speculative".
"The story you are referring to is purely speculative and as the author himself acknowledged that 'none of the attributed statements were confirmed by the individuals mentioned," it had said.
Today's meeting reaffirmed that army and intelligence agencies shall continue to play a lead role in our fight against terrorism which is proceeding smoothly and without any discrimination whatsoever with complete consensus of all stakeholders.
(With PTI inputs)
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