Military spokesperson Lieutenant-General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry clarified on Thursday that Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Field Marshal Asim Munir did not seek an apology from anyone over the May 9, 2023 riots, saying the perpetrators should be “held accountable”, Geo News reported.

The remarks come days after it was reported that the army chief had sought a ‘sincere apology’ over the 2023 countrywide protests — apparently from the PTI, which the state holds responsible for the May 9 riots.

Suhail Warraich, a senior editor for the Daily Jang newspaper, wrote in a column on August 16 that COAS Munir had spoken to him in person recently in Belgium’s capital of Brussels, where the army chief had stopped over on his return from his visit to the United States.

“On a question about politics, he (the army chief) said that political reconciliation is possible only if there is a sincere apology,” the column read, without specifying who the army chief was referring to or who the question was about.

“Neither did the army chief make any political statement in Brussels, nor did he mention any apology,” Geo News quoted Lt-Gen Chaudhry as saying today.

Lt-Gen Chaudhry, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) director general, was speaking to reporters after an event in Islamabad. State-run Radio Pakistan reported that the DG ISPR clarified that the army chief “did not give any interview”.

The DG ISPR was further reported as saying that the army chief “did not say anything about the PTI”.

Lt-Gen Chaudhry asserted: “May 9 is not only the military’s case but the nation’s case. It is clear that those who carried out the May 9 [riots], their enablers and planners should be held accountable as per the law.”

“There were hundreds of people present at the Brussels event. Those attending the event had their pictures taken with the field marshal,” the DG ISPR noted.

He also termed Pakistan a “country that changes the region’s destinies”, according to the report. “This is the reason why it is frequently attacked. The youth should understand the legacy and history of their ideological state,” he said.

When contacted for comment by Dawn, Warraich said he had “no comment” on the DG ISPR’s statement.

Following the report about the army chief’s Brussels talk, the PTI reiterated its demand for an empowered judicial commission to probe the May 9 riots, the November 26 protest incident, and the 2024 general elections.

The military considers the PTI the “planners and architects” of the May 9 riots and, in May 2024, demanded an apology from PTI founder Imran Khan, who in turn claimed that the army owes an apology to him since he was “abducted” by the Rangers on May 9.

However, days later, he offered to apologise on the condition that the involvement of PTI supporters in the violent protests was proved through CCTV evidence. Scores of PTI leaders have recently been convicted in cases over the riots and disqualified.

Earlier this month, Coordinator to the Prime Minister on Commerce and Industries Rana Ihsaan Afzal said the government would be able to consider a pardon for Imran if he were to issue an apology for his “crimes”.

In June, Imran’s sister Aleema Khan claimed that the ex-premier had been asked several times to apologise for the May 9 violent protests.