Lahore (Web Desk): Awami Muslim League (AML) chief and former Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed on Friday, reemerged after a month-long disappearance, when he was seen on TV screens giving interview to a private news channel.
The AML chief he always instructed the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief to keep stable relations with the army. He added that attempting to block the appointment of Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen Asim Munir was Imran Khan’s biggest mistake.
Rasheed appeared in the interview a day after the Lahore High Court (LHC) gave the police the target time till October 26 to recover the senior politician, whose whereabouts hadn't been traced since his arrest last month. He was allegedly picked up from his residence in Rawalpindi on Sept 17, according to his lawyer.
When the host asked about his whereabouts, Sheikh Rasheed said: “Just assume I was on a chilla [with] a tableeghi jamaat (proselytisers). I kept reading the [Holy] Quran during these 40 days.”
When asked why he wanted to give an interview, Rasheed said, “This has become a tradition”.
The AML leader said said that no politician should take the names of any army officer, adding that he attended the National Security Committee (NSC) meeting on cypher while also claimed that three persons were talking with the army on behalf of the PTI chairman.
However, later PTI chief stopped them from negotiating. “And those three men have now created their own political parties,” he said.
"The PTI chairman is a stubborn politician," he said, admitting that messing with the army chief was their mistake.
He said that followers of the PTI chairman believed that they had supporters inside the army ranks and would be supported by those officers if they reached Rawalpindi.
