Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Saturday afternoon slammed what he said was 'unnecessary noise' surrounding the directives issued by the PM's Office earlier in the day in relation to an investigation into a Dawn leaks, saying that a formal notification has yet to be issued in this regard.
He further said the notification would be issued by his ministry and would be in line with what he called the "black and white" recommendations made by the inquiry committee.
Nisar's statement implied that the PM Office's recommendations were leaked before they were sent to the interior ministry, and raised fresh questions regarding what official action his ministry was going to order in relation to the investigation.
Answering a question on the Dawn leaks investigation at an unrelated press conference in Karachi, he started off saying: "Whatever I say will be in accordance with the law. I believe that tweets, sent out by whichever institution, are a deadly poison for Pakistan's democratic system and justice."
"Our institutions address each other through tweets and that is very unfortunate," he said, in an apparent reference to a tweet sent out by the military's media wing, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), a few hours earlier.
The ISPR had tweeted that the Army had rejected the PM Office's "notification", calling it "incomplete".
Also Read: Army rejects government's notification over Dawn leaks case: ISPR
Director General ISPR Major Asif Ghafoor, who heads the military's media arm, had said:
"Notification on Dawn Leaks is incomplete and not in line with recommendations by the Inquiry Board. Notification is rejected."
Nisar then said that a notification [regarding the inquiry into the Dawn leaks] is supposed to be "issued by the interior ministry [and not the PM's Office], and we haven't issued it yet."
"The PM's Secretariat or the PM's Office need to read the rules of business: they cannot issue notifications. The 'notification' that is being circulated is actually addressed to the Ministry of Interior and have come after the briefings I have given to the prime minister [over the last three days]."
"The [final] notification has yet to be issued by the ministry of interior, and it will be in line with the recommendations we have received from the [inquiry] committee," he said.
"My statement from day before yesterday is on record where I said the PM has accepted the committee's recommendations and has advised the Interior Ministry to act accordingly," Nisar added.
"How did it [the PM Office statement] get out?" he asked. "And why is there such a furore around it?"
"I feel like we are doing this country a disservice by acting like this," he added.
