The curious case of Chaudhry Nisar
Nisar has even surpassed Malik’s total disregard for facts in his desperate attempt to play to the gallery.
The writer is Executive Editor of The Express Tribune
The former interior minister, Rehman Malik, was all in one. At times, he would even be found doubling for the prime minister (PM). But the current one seems to have gone one up on Malik. He has grabbed the mantle of the leader of the opposition as well. Chaudhry Nisar has taken on the prime minister himself, of course, rather indirectly, by questioning the understanding of the PM’s adviser on foreign affairs, Sartaj Aziz, on the matter of drones. He has even questioned Finance Minister Ishaq Dar’s ‘pursuit’ of US dollars while the “US is all out to undermine Pakistan’s sovereignty with its drones”.
Nobody used to take Malik seriously even when he would be casting his pearls of wisdom on the most serious matters. Nisar is seriousness personified. But his self-righteous, self-serving hyperbolic haranguing on everything under sun, whether serious or non-serious, is becoming too annoying a matter not to be taken seriously. More so because, like his predecessor, he appears to be preoccupied with things other than the job he has been entrusted with — to look after the law and order situation in the country.
Like his predecessor, he also appears to be totally immune to ridicule. He showed no embarrassment when lampooned for letting one person armed with a rifle take the capital hostage for almost five hours. In fact, he mocked Zammarud Khan for attempting to tackle the armed fanatic single-handedly. What Zammarud did was indeed foolhardy but he did what the interior minister should have ordered the police to do within the very first few minutes of the start of the infamous saga.
The Rawalpindi sectarian clash was nothing less than an interior ministry disaster of horrendous proportions. In civilised countries, ministers responsible for law and order have resigned for failing to avert lesser tragedies.
Nisar’s baffling silence on the presence of Naseeruddin Haqqani in Islamabad, his murder and the way his body was transferred from Islamabad all the way to Miramshah, in North Waziristan, without having been spied by security personnel anywhere en route to the final destination, gives rise to a number of questions which he alone can answer. And what was a Haqqani commander doing in Hangu? It is these questions that the interior minister should be focusing on rather than trying to double for the foreign and the finance ministers.
Nisar has even surpassed Malik’s total disregard for facts in his desperate attempt to play to the gallery. Aziz, in his testimony to the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs did not say the US would not use drones against the Taliban any more. What he said was that it would not attack the Taliban during peace talks and that it needs to be informed beforehand when such talks were in progress and according to him, (Aziz), no peace talks were being held between the government and the Taliban when Hakimullah was killed. And, of course, he did not say that the US would not target Haqqanis if spotted anywhere inside Pakistan.
The PM wants visa-free travel between India and Pakistan, but Nisar’s ministry appears to know nothing about the Defence of Pakistan Council, which brings out chest beating ‘crush India’ hordes on our streets whenever there is even the slightest move forward on the matter of granting India the Most Favoured Nation status. And what about the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which has its strongest presence in Punjab and whose members kill Shias with total impunity? There are said to be at least 40 well-armed and well-funded militant groups thriving in Punjab, which are said to provide the needed social and physical infrastructure to the TTP to carry out its murderous campaigns all over the country. Take care of these jihadis and the TTP would disappear on their own, without having to mount a military operation against them.
Tailpiece: Writing this column has pained me a lot as I have always held Nisar in the highest esteem. I have watched his progress from a political novice, when he first appeared on the political scene in the 1982 Majlis-e-Shura of Ziaul Haq, to a mature politician of national stature of today. And I have felt even worse comparing his performance with that of Inspector Clouseau — Malik’s nickname given him by our late friend Khalid Hasan.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 27th, 2013.
Nobody used to take Malik seriously even when he would be casting his pearls of wisdom on the most serious matters. Nisar is seriousness personified. But his self-righteous, self-serving hyperbolic haranguing on everything under sun, whether serious or non-serious, is becoming too annoying a matter not to be taken seriously. More so because, like his predecessor, he appears to be preoccupied with things other than the job he has been entrusted with — to look after the law and order situation in the country.
Like his predecessor, he also appears to be totally immune to ridicule. He showed no embarrassment when lampooned for letting one person armed with a rifle take the capital hostage for almost five hours. In fact, he mocked Zammarud Khan for attempting to tackle the armed fanatic single-handedly. What Zammarud did was indeed foolhardy but he did what the interior minister should have ordered the police to do within the very first few minutes of the start of the infamous saga.
The Rawalpindi sectarian clash was nothing less than an interior ministry disaster of horrendous proportions. In civilised countries, ministers responsible for law and order have resigned for failing to avert lesser tragedies.
Nisar’s baffling silence on the presence of Naseeruddin Haqqani in Islamabad, his murder and the way his body was transferred from Islamabad all the way to Miramshah, in North Waziristan, without having been spied by security personnel anywhere en route to the final destination, gives rise to a number of questions which he alone can answer. And what was a Haqqani commander doing in Hangu? It is these questions that the interior minister should be focusing on rather than trying to double for the foreign and the finance ministers.
Nisar has even surpassed Malik’s total disregard for facts in his desperate attempt to play to the gallery. Aziz, in his testimony to the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs did not say the US would not use drones against the Taliban any more. What he said was that it would not attack the Taliban during peace talks and that it needs to be informed beforehand when such talks were in progress and according to him, (Aziz), no peace talks were being held between the government and the Taliban when Hakimullah was killed. And, of course, he did not say that the US would not target Haqqanis if spotted anywhere inside Pakistan.
The PM wants visa-free travel between India and Pakistan, but Nisar’s ministry appears to know nothing about the Defence of Pakistan Council, which brings out chest beating ‘crush India’ hordes on our streets whenever there is even the slightest move forward on the matter of granting India the Most Favoured Nation status. And what about the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which has its strongest presence in Punjab and whose members kill Shias with total impunity? There are said to be at least 40 well-armed and well-funded militant groups thriving in Punjab, which are said to provide the needed social and physical infrastructure to the TTP to carry out its murderous campaigns all over the country. Take care of these jihadis and the TTP would disappear on their own, without having to mount a military operation against them.
Tailpiece: Writing this column has pained me a lot as I have always held Nisar in the highest esteem. I have watched his progress from a political novice, when he first appeared on the political scene in the 1982 Majlis-e-Shura of Ziaul Haq, to a mature politician of national stature of today. And I have felt even worse comparing his performance with that of Inspector Clouseau — Malik’s nickname given him by our late friend Khalid Hasan.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 27th, 2013.