Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday praised the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) for “ensuring protection and defence of the country” amidst a raging controversy over the recent assassination attempt on senior journalist Hamid Mir.
Presiding over a high-level meeting, Prime Minister Sharif said all institutions will continue to work in synergy for the protection of public. “The prime minister lauded the role and efforts of ISI in ensuring the protection and defence of the country,” an official statement said.
Sharif’s remarks came at a time when a controversy has been generated over the assassination attempt on Mir last week, with the latter’s brother blaming “certain elements” in the ISI and its chief Lt General Zaheerul Islam of orchestrating the attack, a charge vehemently denied by the military.
The accusation sparked a controversy, with the Defence Ministry seeking cancellation of the broadcasting licence of Geo News, the country’s leading news channel. In an interview on Saturday, Geo TV’s leading anchor Mir did not blame the ISI chief but pointed fingers at what he called “ISI within ISI”. Mir questioned various groups, some of them banned, taking out rallies in support of the intelligence agency and a number of posters having sprung up in various parts of the federal capital in support of the ISI and the Pakistan Army.
Army chief Gen Raheel Sharif had visited the ISI headquarters soon after the attack on Mir and praised it, in what is seen as a move to show solidarity with the spy agency. The prime minister had not spoken a word on the issue so far but visited Mir at the hospital in Karachi. However, on Monday, Sharif praised the ISI and reiterated that the armed forces and the civilian set up are on the same page.
The prime minister also reviewed the overall security situation in a meeting at Prime Minister’s House, attended by Army Chief General Raheel Sharif, Minister for Interior Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Special Assistant to PM Tariq Fatemi, ISI Director General Zaheerul Islam, Secretary to PM Javaid Aslam and Additional Secretary to PM Fawad Hassan Fawad.
TALKS WITH TALIBAN:
The meeting decided to continue dialogue with the banned terror outfit, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Shura and finalised the agenda for the next round of dialogue.
The meeting decided to hold parleys with the TTP on a formalised agenda, sources told Pakistan Today.
Interior Minister Nisar briefed the meeting on the progress made so far in the dialogue process.
“It’s high time to make talks with the TTP successful or take it to some logical conclusion,” Nisar told the meeting.
The DG ISI briefed the meeting on the progress made so far in the investigation into recent terrorist attacks in the country and shared detailed evidence in this regard. He assured the meeting that the mastermind of such attacks would be unmasked soon and brought to book.
The meeting also talked on other key issues which Prime Minister Sharif would be discussing during a meeting with his UK counterpart David Cameron.
The prime minister said that economic development depends on peace and the government would ensure peace to put the country on the path of development.
what is nawaz's game?- first he visits mir in hospital, when mir's brother had pointed an accusing finger at ISI chief, thereby making the security service look like the culprit and straight away orders an inquiry to make it look his impartiality in the matter. Now he showers praises on ISI.Do they really need to be praised? This all does not add up , inspite of him playing happy families with the army!
Comments are closed.