RAWALPINDI: The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) on Sunday termed the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC Urdu) news story — detailing events that reportedly took place at Prime Minister House late on Saturday night — published on its website as a pack of lies and part of an organised disinformation campaign.

The military’s media wing in a news release said, “BBC Urdu story published today is totally baseless and a pack of lies. The typical propaganda story lacks any credible, authentic and relevant source and violates basic journalistic ethos”.

It added: “There is no truth in the fake story whatsoever and clearly seems part of an organised disinformation campaign.”

The ISPR said that the matter was being taken up with BBC authorities.

According to Dawn.com, the story in question supposedly recounts the events leading up to the ouster of Imran Khan as prime minister late on Saturday night.

The BBC story says that Parliament House was abuzz with activity during the day as the National Assembly was in session. However, this activity shifted to the PM House once the session was adjourned for Iftar.

It said that Imran Khan had convened an emergency meeting of his cabinet — summoning his legal and political advisers, the NA speaker and deputy speaker and several bureaucrats — where it was decided that the “threat letter” would be shown to a select few officials.

The BBC story alleged that “two uninvited guests” reached PM House, with an extraordinary security detail, via helicopter and held a 45-minute private meeting with Mr Khan.

The biggest claim in the story said that the meeting was less than pleasant. “Just an hour ago, former prime minister Imran Khan had given orders to remove one of the senior officials present for the meeting,” the story alleged, without mentioning any names.

It went on to say that the sudden arrival of the guests was “unexpected” for the former premier, adding that Imran Khan was instead expecting the arrival of his “newly appointed officials”.

The story alleged that the necessary notifications for the removal and the new appointment were not issued by the ministry concerned. “Even if the removal was carried out on the prime minister’s orders, preparations had been made to declare it null and void,” the BBC report said.

The story also talked about how the doors of the Islamabad High Court were open late at night to take up a petition asking the court to restrain Imran Khan from de-notifying the officer.

Published in Dawn, April 11th, 2022