Rehman Malik rejects MNAs’ calls to resign

Interior minister says he is now number one on Taliban hit-list.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik has rejected calls to resign from both government and opposition members of the National Assembly, saying he will do so only if it is “proved” that there was a security lapse in the assassination of Minorities Affairs Minister Shahbaz Bhatti.

“I have already said in the cabinet that I will quit if the lapse is proved. I am ready even now to do this,” Malik told the house here on Friday, winding up a two-day debate on Bhatti’s murder.

The minister suggested the formation of a judicial commission or a parliamentary committee to investigate whether there was a security lapse.

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) MNA Jamshed Dasti had called for Malik’s immediate resignation because of his apolitical background. “Give this slot (Interior Ministry) to somebody who has to seek votes,” Dasti said.

Several members of both the Nawaz and Quaid-i-Azam  factions of the Pakistan Muslim League backed Dasti’s demand.

Malik denied that the killers were able to get to Bhatti because he wasn’t provided adequate security.

He said following threats against the minister, he was given an increased level of protection called “box security”. Bhatti himself selected four Christian constables from Islamabad Police to be in his security detail.

On the president’s directive, 15 or 16 Elite Force personnel were deployed for his security, he said.

Malik told the house that Bhatti used to move without security from his official residence to the nearby house where his mother lived.

“He feared his enemies may target him at his residence so he used to leave for his mother’s house at night,” he said.

He said Bhatti may still be alive if he had kept his guards with him at all times. He said the minister was given a second-hand bullet-proof car but he returned it and sought a new one.

“The government was in the process of purchasing it for him,” the minister said, contradicting what Bhatti himself said in one of his last interviews with the media before the assassination.

Taliban targets

The minister added that he himself was now at the top of a list of Taliban targets. “You may not find me here again. I am under threat,” he added.

PPP MNAs Sherry Rehman, another supporter of reforms to the blasphemy laws, and Fauzia Wahab, the party’s former information secretary, were at number two and three on the list, respectively, the minister said.

During the two-day debate, the National Assembly heard emotionally charged speeches by members from all parties but it could not adopt a formal resolution condemning the murder of the country’s only Christian federal minister, allegedly by Taliban associated with al Qaeda and based in Punjab. Instead, the assembly held two minutes of silence to mourn Bhatti’s passing.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 5^th, 2011.