Nisar calls Zardari’s speech ‘insulting’

Zardari has tried to cover up his party’s shortcomings and weaknesses by targeting a national institution, says...

ISLAMABAD: In a knee-jerk reaction to Asif Zardari’s vitriol against the security establishment, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan described the PPP co-chairman’s speech ‘inappropriate and insulting’.

“He [Zardari] has tried to cover up his party’s shortcomings and weaknesses by targeting a national institution,” Nisar said in a statement hours after Zardari’s angry tirade.

Nisar said the PPP leader’s criticism of the security establishment was ‘uncalled for’ and it came at a time when army soldiers were sacrificing their lives for the country’s survival.  “This style of politics is dangerous as well as condemnable,” he added.

Read: Angry outburst: PPP co-chairman fires broadside at establishment

Zardari’s surprising outburst came a day after a senior senator of his party, Farhatullah Babar, directed his criticism at the paramilitary Rangers for ‘its failure’ to eradicate organised crimes from Karachi.

Speaking on a calling attention notice in the Senate, Senator Babar said: “They [Rangers] had come to end crimes in Karachi, armed with enormous powers for four months. Then what has prevented them from delivering, despite being allowed to stay in the city for almost two years?”

Interior Minister Nisar, however, regretted Senator Babar’s criticism. “It [Rangers] has become a symbol of security and confidence in Karachi,” he said at the inauguration of auto passport delivery SMS service at the Directorate General of Immigration and Passports.

Read: Secure capital: Safe City Project to be launched in October

“The well-trained force has played a remarkable role on the border besides being on the frontline in the war on terror and if there are any complaints against them the same could have been raised at the forum of the apex committee headed by [Sindh] Chief Minister [Qaim Ali Shah],” he said.

The interior minister also defended the four-week extension in the Pakistan Army Act (Amendment) Ordinance, 2015 which was opposed by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf in the National Assembly on Monday.

“It is part of the National Action Plan which enjoys the backing of all political parties. Critics of this ordinance are not doing any service to the nation,” he added. In January this year, parliament voted in favour of the ordinance which envisaged establishment of military courts to try civilian terrorism suspects. “It was not a PML-N’s ordinance,” Nisar said.


Published in The Express Tribune, June 17^th, 2015.