ISLAMABAD – Former Principal Infomation Officer (PIO) Rao Tehseen, who was sacked for his alleged role in Dawn Leaks has announced that he will be taking the legal route to challenging his dismissal.
According to media reports, Tehseen expressed that the commission did not pinpoint the actual man behind the leak and questioned why he was removed from his post.
He emphasised that he had nothing to do with the leak and claimed that his lawyer had asked for the inquiry commission’s confidential report after which he would move court against the decision.
It bears mentioning that Rao Tehseen was removed from his post on Saturday after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif approved recommendations of the inquiry committee constituted to probe Dawn’s controversial story ‘Act against militants or face diplomatic isolation’.
Not only Tehseen, but the special assistant to the prime minister on Foreign Affairs Syed Tariq Fatemi was also sacked from his post. On Monday Fatemi in his farewell letter also refuted the allegations levelled against him and termed them ‘baseless’.
Despite sacking two key officials, the media wing of armed forces rejected the notification and dubbed it ‘incomplete’ hours after it was issued.
The Dawn Leaks controversy started in October last year when Pakistan’s leading daily ‘Dawn’ in one of its stories by the name ‘Act against militants or face diplomatic isolation’ hinted at the rift between civil-military relations.
The story stirred a major controversy, resulting in columnist Cyril Almeida coming under fire from the military and government and being temporarily placed on the Exit Control List.
The Dawn story quoting official sources said that civilian government and military were not on the same page regarding actions against some specific militant groups and there was heated exchange of words between Punjab CM Shehbaz and ISI chief during a national security meeting.
Pakistan army had dismissed the story as “unfounded and planted” and called for a probe into the leak that led to the formation of an inquiry commission.
Prime Minister Office and Punjab Chief Minister also rejected the report published in the newspaper.
