By Sarmad Ali
Some Lucky 26 retired army officers have got the approval of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) to appear on media as defence analysts while. There are a few others who remained unlucky and omitted in the list.
There was a race among several retired officials after the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority had instructed all private television channels to seek prior clearance from the ISPR before inviting retired military officers on news and current affairs programmes “to solicit their views on matters of national security”.
The ISPR has made it clear that any views of these 26 retired army
officials will be that of their own and will not be reflected as policy
of the armed forces.
According
to a notification issued by the ISPR on Monday, Lt Gen Moinuddin
Haider, Let Gen Amjad Shoaib, Lt Gen Khalid Maqbool, Lt Gen Naeem Khalid
Lodhi, Lt Gen Asif Yaseen Malik, Lt Gen Raza Ahmed, Lt Gen Ashraf
Saleem, Maj Gen Ejaz Awan, Maj Gen Ghulam Mustafa, Brig Saad Rasool,
Brig Farooq Hameed, Brig Ghazanfar Ali, Brig Aslam Ghumman, Brig Nadir
Mir, Brig Asadullah, Brig Asif Haroon, Brig Harris
Nawaz, Brig Said Nazir, Brig Simson Simson Sharof, Admiral Ahmed
Tasnim, AM Shahid Latif, AM Ikram Bhatti, AM Masood Akhtar, AM
Riaz-u-Din, AVM Shahzad Ch and Air Cdre Sajjad Haider have been allowed
to appear on media as defence analysts.
“Their views/comments/opinions on media shall remain
personal/independent expression and not attributable to the
institution,” read the notification.
The unlucky omissions
are retired Brig Mahmood Shah, retired Lt Gen Muhammad Asad Durrani, Lt
Gen Talat Masood, retired Maj Amir and two former DG
ISPR retired Maj Gen Athar Abbas and Maj Gen Rashid Quershi.
However, the notification said that any other retired officer desirous of appearing as defence analyst can contact the ISPR to obtain a no-objection certificate.
PEMRA had noted that retired military officers are usually not fully conversant with the latest defence and security developments when they appear on TV that prompted it to take action. – Pak Destiny
