
This is not the first time the interior minister has interrupted an investigation into violence with some poorly thought-out remarks. When Karachi was plagued by target killings, Rehman Malik thought it apt to speculate that most of the killings were being carried out by irate wives and girlfriends. Investigations into the PNS Mehran attack were only just underway when the interior minister said that the attackers resembled Star Wars characters. For a man in such a sensitive position, the interior minister should have learned by now that discretion is the better part of valour. Since that lesson has obviously escaped him, it is time that the president and prime minister muzzle him. He should no longer be allowed to make his bizarre and unhelpful statements so soon after tragedy has struck.
In the controversy over Malik’s statements, we should also remember that ultimately it doesn’t matter whether the bomb was planted or if it was detonated by a suicide bomber. It still took eight lives, including that of a child. In due course, investigations will prove what kind of attack it was. Far more important, though, is that the investigations find out who was behind the attack.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 26th, 2011.
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