PTI, military at loggerheads over conspiracy row.

ISLAMABAD -- The military authorities and the main opposition party, the PTI, came face-to-face on WednesA!day on the 'Lettergate' issue, with the military spokesman insisting that his previous day's remarks about the lack of a foreign conspiracy against the previous government were not political in nature.

ISPR Director General Maj Gen Babar Iftikhar was responding to criticism from PTI leaders, who said he had given a 'political statement' a day earlier and reiterated their demand for a Supreme Court commission to ascertain whether the PTI government was toppled under a conspiracy.

In an interview with a TV channel on Tuesday, the DG ISPR once again rejected the conspiracy claim made by Imran Khan, who insists he was ousted from the top office through a US-backed manoeuvre with the help of local players.

Regarding the first National Security CommitA!tee (NSC) meeting on the diplomatic cable at the centre of the conspiracy allegation that was held during Mr Khan's tenure, the DG ISPR said it was attended by the top military leadership and the participants were 'clearly and in detail briefed by agencies that there is no kind of conspiracy or any evidence of it'.

ISPR chief says nothing political about remarks; party reiterates call for judicial inquiry into cable

His comments provoked a response from PTI leaders Asad Umar and Shireen Mazari on Wednesday, who told a press conference that the military spokesman's remarks were akin to wading into political matters and were more an 'opinion' than a fact.

A few hours after the presser, the DG ISPR appeared on a TV channel to respond: 'Yesterday, I talked on the issue (of conspiracy) in detail and in response to Asad Umar's statement; I want to clarify that I did not give any political statement on the matter.'

He said he had given the statement on behalf of all services chiefs that 'no evidence of any conspiracy was found in the removal of the last government'.

The DG ISPR said former interior minister Sheikh Rashid had claimed in a show last week that no services chief, in the NSC meeting on March 31, had said that a conspiracy did not happen.

'He (Rashid) was in a way [trying] to convey that he was talking as their representative,' the military spokesperson said. 'That is why I felt it necessary to go in the same programme and clarify this on behalf of the services chiefs since I'm their spokesman. There is nothing political to this.'

He reiterated that his explanation about the NSC meeting...