Around 400 officers of every rank have been given various punishments, including dismissal from service 0n various grounds during the last two years.
PKONWEB Report — The Chief of Pakistan Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa on Thursday endorsed punishment to two high ranking Army officers and one civil officer on charges of espionage/leakage of sensitive information to foreign agencies prejudicial to national security.
According to a press conference by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the officers were tried under Pakistan Army Act (PAA) and Official Secret Act by separate Field General Court Marshal (FGCM) for separate cases.
Lt. General Javed Iqbal (r) has been awarded 14 years rigorous imprisonment; Brigadier Raja Rizwan (r) has been awarded death sentence and Dr Wasim Akram who was employed at a sensitive organization has been awarded death sentence as well.
Around 400 officers of every rank have been given various punishments, including dismissal from service 0n various grounds during the last two years, reported Pakistan Today.
Earlier in February, the DG ISPR first mentioned (in public) of the arrest of some officers on espionage charges.
The arrests of the accused officers indicated a robust accountability system in place in the armed forces, he had said.
The ISPR also released today a video statement of Major General Asif Ghafoor confirming the arrest of the two officers and their court-marital.
“Reports started circulating in the media that two senior army officers were under arrest. Yes they are. There are two officers who are under military custody on the charges of espionage,” the ISPR director general says in the video.
Pakistan is confronting a hybrid warfare for over a decade now, say several observers, “despite a reduction in terrorism and extremism.”
