Nawaz was unjustly ousted, admits Gen Bajwa.

Former army chief General (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa had a long and frank discussion with senior journalists and bureaucrats during which he covered in detail the personality of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chairman Imran Khan, his politics, his government and the relationship of the army with his government.

As per the informed sources, the former army chief also talked about his relationship with former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, and he told the journalists about who ousted Nawaz Sharif and why and who brought Imran Khan to power.

He said that the best relationship of his career was with Nawaz Sharif and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. 'Nawaz Sharif trusted me so much that he assigned me the task of improving relations with the United Arab Emirates. I went there and delivered,' he maintained.

In response to some questions, General (retd) Bajwa discreetly accepted that Nawaz Sharif had been wronged, and he also accepted that Nawaz Sharif had been ousted by the military establishment.

He criticised some of the policies of Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and also the Pakistani bureaucracy. 'The Chinese themselves came to meet me and complained 'we cannot work with your bureaucracy. They deliberately create problems and complications for us',' he claimed.

The former army chief also talked about Imran Khan's visit to Russia and said: 'When I came to the meeting, the entire cabinet including Asad Umar said in unison that there should be a visit to Russia. So, I also agreed while the fact of the matter is that we do not have any trade with Russia, nor does it support us at world forums,' he added. 'On the contrary, Putin used Imran Khan. He had waged a war on Ukraine, and through Imran Khan's visit, Putin gave an impression to the world that Pakistan is with Russia in that war,' he stated.

He later termed the cypher conspiracy and the 'absolutely not' narrative a blatant lie and bogus propaganda, stating that such political stunts and lies had caused damage to Pakistan.

'Two meetings were held with Imran Khan on the cypher issue, and we had fully explained to him about it. But, Imran Khan deliberately tried to cause damage to Pakistan by raising this issue for political gain,' the former army chief maintained.

'Yes! We brought Imran Khan to power, and for that purpose we went to the level so embarrassing that we were labelled as selectors. As a 'reward', I got the label of traitor after serving the army for so many years,' he admitted.

While talking about Lt-Gen...