No possibility of military intervention: Khawaja Asif

Published August 13, 2014
Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif. — File photo
Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif. — File photo

NEW YORK: Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif has said that the government’s relations with the military were “cordial and fine” and he did not see “any possibility of a military intervention”.

The defence minister was speaking in an interview to New York-based business news service Bloomberg.

Asif further said that the government and the military were in complete consensus and agreement on the country's foreign policy.

“We still have four years to go,” Asif told the news service, adding that Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) had “a legislative agenda to complete.”

The news service interviewed the federal minister after the KSE 100 Index (KSE100), up 12 per cent this year, rose 0.8 pe rcent Tuesday after its biggest retreat in five years a day earlier.

The government is currently embroiled in the prevailing political crisis surrounding the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf's (PTI) 'Azadi March'. Late on Tuesday, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif accepted a demand of Imran Khan and requested that the Supreme Court announce a commission to investigate PTI’s allegations about rigging in the May 2013 general elections.

Imran has however spurned the prime minister’s offer to form the commission and has asserted that “no probe is acceptable” without Nawaz Sharif’s resignation.

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