Maryam dares Imran to question ISI officials over phone tapping

Lahore, November 30

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz said on Monday that “puppet” Prime Minister Imran Khan should have “some courage” to question the country’s top spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) as why it is tapping his telephone calls.

Her remarks came in response to Prime Minister Khan’s recent disclosure that he was aware that the agencies tap his phone calls. “This puppet and selected premier Imran even does not have the courage to ask the ISI as why it is taping his calls. He should tell the ISI that it is not the work of the institution that comes under the prime minister,” said Maryam, the daughter of deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

She is leading Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz in absence of her father Nawaz Sharif who has been living in London since November 2019. Sharif’s younger brother and PML-N president Shehbaz Sharif is in custody of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), leaving it to Maryam to lead the party. Khan in a recent interview to a local TV channel had said: “The ISI and the IB (Intelligence Bureau) know whatever I do and with whom I talk to on telephone.”

When asked if he had no issue with the agencies tapping his phone, Khan said: “It happens all over the world. Even the CIA does the same in the US.” The prime minister was of the view that the agencies do such things as they are responsible for providing security to the heads. “The ISI knows as to whom I will be calling and why I am calling. The ISI also knows as to who has taken money out of the country,” he said. Khan said the Pakistan Army knows everything about him. — PTI

Terror attack kills 4

• Unidentified assailants gunned down four men in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province
• North Waziristan District Police Officer Shafiullah Gandapur said the incident took place near Miran Shah Bazar
• There has been no report on the group behind the attack and the motive