Govt, Military Face-Off Continues With PTI.

ISLAMABAD -- The ruling coalition and the military spokesperson on Wednesday traded barbs with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf after the opposition party continued with its accusations of a foreign conspiracy and questioned the recent TV interview of the military spokesperson after the senior official once again rejected the claim of former prime minister Imran Khan that a US-backed regime-change conspiracy was behind his ouster from office.

Earlier on Tuesday, Major General Babar Iftikhar in an interview had said that the top military leadership and the participants were clearly briefed by the agencies in the National Security Committee meeting that there was no kind of evidence of regime change conspiracy.

Addressing a press conference Wednesday, PTI Secretary General Asad Umar said that it was better for the army and the country if DG ISPR did not interpret political affairs. 'The political issues should be dealt with by the politicians,' Asad Umar said.

The PTI leader said that it was beyond comprehension as to why DG ISPR felt the need to talk about 'intervention' and 'conspiracy' when the military spokesperson had himself stated that the army should be kept away from political affairs.

The PTI press conference was strongly denounced by both the military spokesperson and the federal information minister.

Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb, while addressing a presser, strongly criticized the PTI leaders for their remarks and said that these were made under the directions of Imran Khan. She said that PTI wanted to take attention away from the corruption scandals swirling around its top leadership.

'FOREIGN CONSPIRACY' CLAIM

| The military spokesperson says no objection to a judicial probe into PTI claim of foreign conspiracy | PTI leaders accuse military spokesperson of interfering in political matters | Maj Gen Babar Iftikhar strongly denies PTI's assertions

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