On August 22, senior journalist Suhail Warraich clarified that his recent column regarding a meeting with Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Field Marshal Asim Munir had been “misunderstood” and that several points attributed to him were never written in his piece.
The controversy began after the publication of Warraich’s column in Jang on August 16, in which he recounted an interaction with the army chief during a stopover in Brussels. “On a question about politics, he (the army chief) said that political reconciliation is possible only if there is a sincere apology,” the column stated. The excerpt was widely debated and linked to the events of May 9, despite no specific mention of them in the article.
A day earlier, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) rejected the impression, clarifying that Field Marshal Munir had made no political statements during his Brussels trip. ISPR Director General Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry also stressed that the army chief had not given any interview, describing the journalist’s report as inappropriate.
Breaking his silence, Warraich said in a statement on X that his writing was misinterpreted. “The points he (Chaudhry) refuted were never mentioned in my column. Perhaps he spoke based on a misunderstanding,” he wrote.
He acknowledged that the ISPR chief was correct in stating that no interview took place. “Please reread my entire column — nowhere does it use the word ‘interview’. The title of my column is simply ‘First Meeting’, neither more nor less. I never wrote it was a one-on-one meeting,” he said.
Warraich further stated that his article did not contain any reference to May 9 or to Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf founder Imran Khan. “Kindly reread the column; it contains no mention of May 9, Imran Khan or his apology. I wrote only one sentence: that regarding political reconciliation, he (the army chief) cited verses of the Holy Quran and their translation.”
Warraich said he had no intention of responding to personal criticism. “The coming time and the history to be written will clarify every matter. I have always avoided fights and arguments in life and even after much thought, my opinion remains the same.”
