Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor on Friday denounced claims made by Senator Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo who said Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lt Gen Faiz Hameed's "people" were behind the opposition's failure in the Senate's no confidence vote against Sadiq Sanjrani.

In a tweet posted on Maj Gen Ghafoor's official Twitter account early today, the ISPR chief said that Bizenjo's remarks were "unfounded" and did not "serve democracy".

"Remarks by Senator Mir Hasil Bizenjo implicating head of national premier institution are unfounded. The tendency to bring entire democratic process into disrepute for petty political gains doesn’t serve democracy," Maj-Gen Ghafoor said.

The joint opposition had last month submitted a no-confidence resolution against Senate Chairman Sanjrani and had named Bizenjo as its candidate for the position.

The resolution was tabled yesterday by Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Raja Zafarul Haq and was comfortably passed by opposition senators, with 64 voting in its favour. But the opposition suffered a shock defeat when it fell three votes short to dismiss the Senate chairman. Needing only 53 of the 64 senators' votes to send Sanjrani packing, the opposition fell three short when the result of the secret ballot was announced.

After the vote, as Bizenjo was walking out of the Senate building, a journalist asked if the senator knew the 14 turncoats who had voted against their party's stated stance.

Bizenjo responded: "These are Gen Faiz's people. You know Gen Faiz, the ISI chief, [they] were his people."