ISLAMABAD: Canceling Corps Commanders’ meeting scheduled for Monday,
army chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani invited heads of forces
including ISI besides some other key associates for a detailed dinner
meeting at his residence.
“It is a dinner and a very few guests
are participating in it,” well-placed sources informed Online. According
to the sources, Naval Chief Admiral Asif Sandeela, Air Chief Rao Qamar
Suleman, Director General Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) Ahmed Shuja
Pasha and a few other high-ranking officers were among the selected
guests.
The sources said that the guests were asked to visit the
Army House in Rawalpindi without ostensible protocol and also in
private vehicles. They (the guests) were asked to arrive preferably in
self-driven vehicles, the sources added
The sources were of the
view that the army chief wanted to take other services’ chiefs into
confidence over the issue of memogate and situations emerging in this
regard. “He, probably, shared with the participants conversations he had
with President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gailani,”
the sources added.
However, the meeting being informal, quite,
and relatively longer in duration perturbed the political quarters both
in Islamabad and Karachi.
This rare sort of meeting followed an
unusual clarification by the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR)
about army chief’s phone call to the President Asif Ali Zardari when the
latter was in Dubai that “it was only for a minute.” The sources
observed that the army felt need for clarification because a lot of
impressions were being construed out of its chief’s brief talk to the
President on phone. “For instance,” the sources mentioned, “it was
wrongly reported in a section of press that the chief had guaranteed
stability and protection to President Zardari.”
Earlier, a
relevant official, requesting not to be named, confirmed to Online that
Corps Commanders’ routine meeting was scheduled for Monday December 19.
“But it was cancelled due to reasons better known to the competent
authority,” he said and added, “The commanders’ meeting would be
convened soon as per the new schedule.”
He, however, expressed
total ignorance about any dinner meeting at the Army House. At the same
it slipped out of his tongue that “whatever meeting you are talking
about has nothing to do with the commanders’ moot.” Online
