Imran asks president to rein in military.

ISLAMABAD -- Upping the ante in his confrontation with the country's powerful military establishment, former prime minister Imran Khan on Monday wrote to his own party leader and supreme commander of the armed forces of Pakistan, President Dr Arif Alvi, demanding an inquiry against two senior military officers for holding a 'political presser' and asked him to place limits on the powers of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).

In a letter to the president, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman referred to the press conference held by the Director General of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt Gen Nadeem Ahmed Anjum and DG ISPR Lt Gen Babar Iftikhar on Oct 27 and accused them of 'deliberately trying to create a false narrative'.

'Two related questions that should also be examiAned are how the head of PakAistan's premier IntelliAgAeAnce Agency can do a public press conference; how can two milAiAtary bureaucrats do a higAhly political press conference targeting the leader of the largest and perhaps the only federal political party in Pakistan today,' he asked.

He said that ever since the removal of PTI's government in April and in the wake of growing public support for 'Haqeeqi Azadi', the party had been confronted with 'an ever increasing scale of false allegations, harassment, arrests and custodial torture'.

Mr Khan alleged that the interior minister had repeatedly issued death threats to him.

'I was informed of a plot to assassinate me having been hatched by PM ShehAbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and Maj General Faisal DG C ISI. The plot was operationalised earlier during our Long March but Allah saved me and the assassination attempt failed,' he wrote.

Imran Khan appealed to President Alvi that under Article 243 (2) of Constitution he should take note of 'serious wrongdoings' that undermined Pakistan's national security and to institute an inquiry under his leadership to 'identify the guilty and hold them accountable'.

'A breach of the Official Secret[s] Act occurred when confidential conversation between myself as PM, the COAS [Chief of Army Staff] and the DG ISI on a supposedly secure line was 'leaked' to the media. This raises a very serious question as to who or what organisation was involved in doing a clearly illegal wiretap of the PM's secure phone line? This is a breach of national security at the highest level,' he stated.

Cipher issue

The PTI leader also raised the issue of the...