Nisar defends meeting leaders of proscribed organisations

Interior minister says everyone knows the issues PPP has with him

ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar on Saturday lashed out at Pakistan Peoples Party for criticising his meetings with leaders of proscribed organisations.

Addressing the media in Kallar Syedan Nisar said, "It is unfair to link everything to the chief of the proscribed Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) Maulana Ahmad Ludhi­anvi."



Defending his meetings, he said, "Everyone knows the issues PPP has with me." Admitting that there are photographs of him meeting leaders of proscribed organisations, the interior minister questioned if PPP leaders during their tenure did not meet the leaders.

Referring to the action taken against people bearing fake Computerised National Identity Cards (CNICs), the interior minister said, "During my tenure, about 450,000 CNICs and 32,400 passports have been blocked. There is no record of a single CNIC being blocked from 2002 till 2007, which reflects on negligence of previous governments."



On Tuesday, Nisar shocked the Senate after he said banned sectarian organisations could not be equated with banned terrorist groups. The Shia-Sunni conflict, he argued, went back 1,300 years. Responding to the objection to his meeting with a delegation comprising members of a banned outfit, the interior minister said outlawed sectarian organisations should not be equated with those of terrorist outfits.