JournalismPakistan.com | Published July 10, 2023
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ISLAMABAD—Veteran journalist Shaheen Sehbai says he stands by his interview with Mooed Pirzada in which he narrated how a shooting incident in 1968 against then military ruler Ayub Khan started his downfall and added the interview was not scripted.
The interview led to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif alleging that his predecessor Imran Khan is engaged in "a vile, sinister & malicious campaign against COAS General Syed Asim Munir" through his "proxies."
Imran Khan has termed the allegation "absurd."
General Ayub Khan was the first military ruler who ruled Pakistan from 1958 to 1969. The shooting incident occurred in a public meeting in Peshawar where President Ayub remained safe. Sehbai said he was present at that public meeting and was a witness to the shooting.
In his tweet on Monday, Sehbai, who is outside Pakistan and facing a treason case, wrote, "STRONGLY CONDEMN PM TWEET: I hereby state with full authority that my interview with @MoeedNj was not at all scripted."
He added that it was a regular interview and narrated the shooting incident in which Ayub Khan was not injured. Sehbai said Imran Khan has nothing to do with it. "We just started with my beginning as a journalist and narrated the Ayub Khan shooting story when the question of how long any reign of terror can last. I was an eyewitness. There was absolutely no involvement, discussion or even information to @ImranKhanPTI. There was just no question of the absurdly bogus nonsensical claim of a conspiracy, made under pressure and probably not even read by PM @CMShehbaz."
Sehbai maintained that the prime minister embarrassed himself and the army chief. "He had no clue of what the Tweet was saying and meant. The PM embarrassed and humiliated the Army Chief ONLY. All the moves boomeranged."
In an earlier tweet, Sehbai asked Prime Minister Shehbaz to "fire the idiot Who Wrote your Tweet…."
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