Nisar rebuts fellow minister’s remarks

Differences in federal cabinet widening after submission of JIT report

ISLAMABAD: After the submission of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) report in the Supreme Court, differences in the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) have started to surface in public.

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan was seen carrying his own stance over certain issues in the Panamagate and didn’t even hesitate in strongly reacting to a statement of a fellow cabinet member which was attributed to him during the cabinet meeting held on Thursday.

The minister late Saturday night strongly responded to the opinion of Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal who, while referring to the speech of the interior minister in the cabinet meeting, had said that everyone in the party had their own views but “no one is breaking from the party line or the prime minister”.

Ahsan also talked about solidarity which was expressed with the prime ministers by all the participants.



However, Interior Minister Spokesman Muhammad Aslam Shahid in a rebuttal advised cabinet ministers to avoid attributing ‘false’ and ‘incorrect’ statements about the speech which Chaudhry Nisar made during the cabinet meeting.

“The interior minister didn't give the statement which a minister of the government is repeatedly mentioning and attributing it with the interior minister (Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan).

“This is unfortunate that these statements are being issued by ministers who actually pushed the government to the present critical situation,” the spokesman of the interior minister added.

This was the third strongly-worded rebuttal issued by the interior minister about his speech in the cabinet meeting ever since the publication to the JIT report.



However, the previous rebuttals were issued to the media over misreporting, but the latest rebuke was issued against the statement of a fellow federal minister.

Iqbal, while talking to a TV channel over the rift in the government ranks, said Thursday’s cabinet meeting fully showed solidarity with the prime minister.

“The meeting was unanimous in its view that the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) had not done justice since its formation to its conclusion, and the government should defend itself before the Supreme Court,” he said.

The minister claimed that the cabinet and the parliamentary party of the PML-N were united and understood that the investigation was a political agenda and had no purpose to hold any accountability. “Its purpose is not different from the first and second sit-in(s).”



Differences among federal ministers are an open secret now and widening with the passage of time.

Nisar has his own stance over certain issues, and this distinguished him among a whole lot of ministers. In addition, he has promised to the media to tell about the happenings in the future.

When some federal ministers were distributing sweets after the Supreme Court’s April 20 verdict, it was the interior minister who had taken a principled stance over the issue.