In a sharp and unprecedented news conference on Thursday, Pakistan's intelligence head accused former Prime Minister Imran Khan of requesting "illegal and unconstitutional" backing from the country's powerful military.
After Khan increased his criticism of the military, accusing it of plotting his ouster in April and helping his opponents, Lieutenant-General Nadeem Anjum, head of the nation's strong Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), gave a press conference.
Khan's criticism, according to Anjum, stems from the military's chief's refusal to carry out unlawful or unconstitutional actions and the military's general's subsequent refusal to budge from its position of political neutrality in the face of Khan's constant requests.
The shadowy ISI chief, who rarely makes public appearances, did not specify what Khan’s requests were.
A leader of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf, Asad Umar, later denied any illegal requests were made.
Pakistan’s military has long been considered the most powerful institution in the country, directly ruling for more than three of the seven-and-a-half decades since independence and taking the lead in setting security and foreign policy even when civilians are in charge.
Analysts say the military was behind Khan’s ascent to prime ministership for the first time in 2018 – a charge both have consistently denied – before falling out last year.
Anjum admitted the military made mistakes in the past, but an institutional decision had been taken recently to stay out of politics.
An opposition alliance voted Khan out of power in a parliamentary vote in April. Khan has since launched a political blitz calling for a snap election. He announced he would stage a protest march from Lahore to Islamabad starting Friday.
The government says an election will be held as scheduled in October next year.
Speaking alongside Anjum, military spokesman Lieutenant-General Babar Iftikhar said the extraordinary step of getting the spy chief to speak in public was taken because of a smear campaign against the military.
Anjum said Khan and army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa had met recently in an attempt to reduce tensions. According to the spy chief, Khan would meet the military leadership in the “darkness of night” to ask for favours and then attack the same people the next day.
He also said that, in March, as opposition pressure was mounting on Khan’s government, the then prime minister had offered Bajwa a “lifetime extension” as army chief, which was turned down.
Khan’s aide Fawad Chaudhry did not respond to a Reuters request for comment on whether such an offer was made.