ISLAMABAD (National Times) A demand made by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan for open trial of former spymaster, retired Lt Gen Faiz Hameed, has taken the flak from “security officials”.

“Who is the PTI founder to dictate whether Faiz Hameed’s trial will be held in an open court or not? If the founder of PTI is tried in this matter, rest assured it will be open and transparent so that the whole world can see what the founder has done and orchestrated,” security officials responded to the former prime minister’s demand.

Earlier in the day, Khan, who has been detained in jail for more than one year, called for an open court trial of retired Gen Faiz Hameed.

In an informal discussion with journalists, Imran Khan stated that he demanded that the trial of retired Gen Faiz Hameed be conducted in an open court.

He argued that the issue between Gen Faiz and himself was not an internal military matter.

He further said that as a former civilian prime minister, taking his case to a military court would damage Pakistan’s image.

Khan mentioned that Faiz became irrelevant after retirement and questioned the benefit of maintaining contact with him, asserting that Faiz was no longer a hero post-retirement.

He said the issue of May 9 was a local issue, and not a matter of national security.