Nisar’s stinging riposte to PPP

Interior Ministry spokesperson says PPP leaders were in a habit of distorting issues

The Pakistan Peoples Party must focus its attention on its own performance in Sindh and avoid distorting history and current affairs, the interior ministry said in a scathing riposte on Monday to a statement by the PPP spokesperson.

Contradicting Senator Farhatullah Babar’s statement, an interior ministry spokesperson said PPP leaders were in a habit of distorting issues by ‘frequently indulging in doublespeak’.



“If indeed the Difa-i-Pakistan Council is such a questionable organisation, why did the PPP government not resist its formation in 2009. More importantly, where was Farhatullah Babar when the same organisation held large-scale public meetings and media conferences during the tenure of [the previous] PPP government?”

“It is also a matter of record that the former president had interactions with members of proscribed organisations who met him during his tenure in Presidency … pictures are available … and printed by national dailies at that time. Perhaps at that time, Farhatullah Babar was not aware of these meetings in spite of being present in the Presidency. Again it is not just the President, but a long list of PPP leaders who … met with members of proscribed organisations … and record … can be made available on demand.”

According to the interior ministry’s spokesperson, Babar “can be excused for turning a blind eye to all these meetings and indulging in the kind of politicking that he is engaged in because that is all PPP is good at”.

However, Babar’s conscious efforts to subvert the “successes achieved against terrorism in the past three years can’t be excused”.

“Babar’s views are nothing less than insulting the realities and facts on the ground.”



Without specifying the exact year, he stated: “From a peak of 2,060 terrorist incidents taking place in one year alone when PPP was at zenith of its power to the current year’s figures of 754; the hard truth that does not appeal to Babar or to his party is that while his government did nothing to address the monster of terrorism, the present government’s record speaks for itself.”

He also drew the PPP’s attention towards internationally recognized fact that “terrorism and hardcore militancy and extremism is at its lowest ebb since the past decade in Pakistan (and this has been) acknowledged by US policy think-tanks, other global terrorism monitoring forums, foreign governments and international media.”

“The PPP is advised to concentrate on its performance in Sindh and keep factual realities in mind before making statements to confuse the public and distort both history and current affairs.”

Published in The Express Tribune, January 17^th, 2017.