ISLAMABAD: Tariq Fatemi, Pakistan Prime Minister's Special Assistant on Foreign Affairs, could be removed from his position after an inquiry found him guilty of "leaking" to a prominent newspaper vital information from a high-level National Security meet, a media report said today.
In October last year, a columnist for Dawn newspaper wrote a front-page story about a rift between Pakistan's civilian and military leaderships over militant groups that operate from Pakistan but engage in proxy war against India and Afghanistan.
The government had set up the inquiry committee last year to probe the controversy surrounding a controversial report by Dawn newspaper about a key meeting on national security. According to the inquiry committee report, it is Fatemi who was primarily responsible for leaking report of the key meeting to the newspaper without due permission.
The report will be presented to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in the next three to four days, adding that it will now be difficult for Fatemi to maintain his position, sources were quoted a saying by the Express Tribune.
The government had ordered an investigation into the matter in November, last year. The committee, headed by Justice (retd) Aamir Raza Khan, included representatives of the Intelligence Bureau, the Military Intelligence and the Inter-Services Investigation.
Earlier, Pervaiz Rasheed was removed from the Information Ministry due to similar reasons. Sharif's Special Assistant on Foreign Affairs will no longer hold the office, the report said. Fatemi is considered as trusted aide of the prime minister and his removal would be a setback for the government of Sharif who is already under pressure due to Panama case verdict.
Cyril Almeida who wrote the article had also reported that the ISI was told during the NSA meeting that its support for terror groups was leaving the country globally isolated. The Foreign Office had vehemently rejected the report and termed it "speculative".