Terror fight gains won't be wasted to suit 'vested agenda': COAS.

Byline: Baqir Sajjad Syed

ISLAMABAD -- The army said on Monday that it stood ready to assist 'national institutions' in accordance with the country's Constitution.

Chief of the Army Staff Gen Qamar Bajwa, while chairing a corps commanders meeting at the General Headquarters, said: 'Pakistan Army as organ of the state will continue to support national institutions as and when asked as per Constitution.'

The meeting, which is a monthly feature at the GHQ, is attended by the army's top brass, including corps commanders, principal staff officers at the headquarters, and the chiefs of military's intelligence services.

The Inter-Services Public Relations, which released quotes from the army chief's remarks at the conference, did not say in which context they were made.

The comments, however, came in the backdrop of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl's (JUI-F) ongoing sit-in in Islamabad and demand for resignation of Prime Minister Imran Khan and holding of fresh elections in the country.

Bajwa says Army will help national institutions as allowed in Constitution

The government, under Article 245 of the Constitution, can call the armed forces to its aid in emergency situations.

JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman last Friday gave a two-day deadline for the prime minister to resign and had threatened to march to D-Chowk, in front of Parliament House, but was later forced to go soft on that after failing to get backing of key opposition parties - Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Pakistan Peoples Party.

The multiparty conference convened on Monday to formulate the future strategy for the agitation also failed to deliver the much needed backing for JUI-F's plans as one of the party leaders Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri soon after the MPC told reporters that the venue of the sit-in, currently in the federal capital's H-9 Sector, was not being changed.

Gen Bajwa, in his...