PPP’s Shah advises PM to change security czar

Senator Babar seeks privilege motion against Nisar over his statement on Lal Masjid cleric

ISLAMABAD:

Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Khursheed Shah has advised Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to change the country’s top security czar, Chaudhry Nisar, as, according to him, the premier is bearing the brunt of criticism due to the interior minister’s ‘conduct’.

As if on a cue, a PPP lawmaker the same day sought a privilege motion in Senate against Nisar’s statement that no action could be taken against Lal Masjid cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz owing to the lack of evidence.



Speaking on the floor of the house, Shah on Friday claimed that except for Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar everyone condemned the January 20 Charsadda attack, in which 21 students and teachers of the Bacha Khan University were killed by heavily-armed terrorists belonging to a splinter group of the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

Later, talking to reporters in his chamber, Shah also taunted that people who had lamented the killing of Hakimullah Mehsud, the former chief of TTP, were still feeling sad for him. Hakimullah was killed in a US drone strike in November 2013 and Nisar had condemned the drone hit, saying it was aimed at sabotaging efforts to establish peace in the country.

Shah’s comments elicited strong reaction from Federal Minister for Defence Production Rana Tanveer Hussain, who issued a statement in which he asked Shah to fear God ‘for baselessly’ blaming Nisar. He said case against the minister stood on the foundation of lies.

“Chaudhry Nisar has been giving statements to the media against the incident and these statements have been broadcast on the mainstream media,” Hussain said. “If the interior minister stopped giving strict opinions on corruption cases related to the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) then he would become their most favourite minister,” he said.





Hussain, while criticising the opposition leader, said it had become his habit to enjoy benefits from the government and now he wanted that appointments of ministers should be made on his whims. “If the opposition leader has so much influence over the prime minister then why he is still in the PPP and not joined the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz,” he asked.  “The opposition leader is the one who didn’t even spare Ummrah and Hajj from corruption,” he alleged.

Meanwhile, PPP’s Senator Farhatullah Babar – in response to the interior minister’s statement made before the upper house on December 30 –   placed before the house four documents on Friday to prove that the Lal Masjid cleric was an ‘absconder’ and that the government was deliberately not arresting him out of fear or complicity.

The documents that Babar presented included a copy of an FIR dated December 19, 2014 against the cleric, the arrest warrants issued against him, the court direction to declare him an absconder, the advertisement declaring him an absconder and a copy of the official communication to telecom companies to suspend mobile phone services in selected areas in the vicinity of Lal Masjid to prevent the dissemination of Aziz’s Friday sermons. The senator recalled that the Lal Masjid clerics had publicly declared allegiance to, and sought the support of, the Islamic State (IS) or Da’ish.



He asked the Senate chairman to send the matter to a privilege committee as the privilege of the house had been breached. He said these documents, which were also available with the interior ministry, proved that the minister’s statement in the Senate on December 30 was devoid of truth and facts.

“Alternatively, the government be directed to give a formal explanation of the contradiction between the minister’s statement and the facts highlighted by these documents,” he said. The chairman then directed the minister of parliamentary affairs to give a comprehensive reply to the issue raised.

Senator Mian Muhammad Ateeq Shaikh drew the attention of the interior minister to last week’s terrorist attack on a polio vaccination team in Quetta. Thirteen law enforcement personnel accompanying the polio vaccination team were slain in the assault.

Minister of State for Interior Balighur Rehman clarified that the investigations into the attack and the terrorists claim confirmed that the attack was not on the polio team but on the law enforcement personnel, who were fighting against terrorism. He said none of those killed were polio workers.

Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) Senator Attaur Rehman urged government, institutions and intelligence agencies to track down the terrorists who were continuing to threaten educational institutions in the country. He also asked the government to implement the National Action Plan (NAP) against terrorism.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 23^rd, 2016.