Nisar denies Islamabad incident was a security failure

Minister of Interior says Zamrud's actions were wrong and he should not be hailed as a hero.

ISLAMABAD: Minister of Interior Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan responded to criticism from the opposition over the government's handling of the Mohammed Sikandar saga, saying those who criticise the government should first answer for the years they have stayed in power, while speaking at the National Assembly today.

The minister was responding to Aitzaz Ahsan's criticism on the government's performance on the Islamabad-standoff and the '17 questions' on security failures that opposition leader Raza Rabbani posed to him a day before.

"It astonishes me," said Nisar. "Just one incident occurs and they term it 'failure for the state of Pakistan'. You have every right to criticise us, the government, but how can you call this one-off incident as failure of the state?"

The minister of interior further accused his opponents of deliberately distorting facts to create chaos and achieve selfish ends.

"People here have created a fuss over and over about how Zamrud Khan is being turned into a controversial figure," said Nisar. "But we didn't do that. In fact, he hails from my area and I've always spoken about him like a friend. Who, then, is making controversial?"

Nisar brought out a bundle of documents detailing major security failures during the 13 years in which opposition parties had stayed in power, specially mentioning the attacks at the GHQ, Salmaan Taseer and the assassination of Minister for Minorities.

Rejecting rumours that the Islamabad stand-off was a security failure, Nisar said that contrary to how the incident was portrayed, Islamabad was not paralyzed because of one man with a gun.

"Only one major road was blocked. The rest of the city was open as normal. People would not have been able to arrive at the site of the incident if it weren't."

Nisar said that despite all of Zamrud Khan's bravery, what he did was wrong and uncalled for, and he should not be hailed as a hero.

"After Zamrud lunged onto the man, it was one of the bullets fired from his gun which ricocheted off and injured his wife."

"The government is neither with Zamrud Khan nor with the other one [Sikandar]. We're with the law and those who uphold it."