Shahbaz fails to remove Nisar’s reservations over influence of PM’s close aides including Dar, Siddiqui
Reconciliation efforts between Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and top leadership of Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) hit a deadlock Thursday as yet another meeting between Nisar and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif ended without a positive result.
Yesterday’s was the fourth successive meeting of the Punjab chief minister with Nisar which failed to convince the resilient minister to change his mind.
A source privy to the details of the meeting told Pakistan Today that Shahbaz failed to remove Nisar’s apprehensions over the interference of some influential aides of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif into the affairs of his ministry.
“Nisar is an upright man and he is unhappy with the prime minister over a number of issues. He is unhappy with the law and order situation and with some of the cabinet members who are influencing the basic policies of the government,” the source said.
“Nisar is also unhappy with the prime minister for not fulfilling some promises made to the top leadership of the military establishment, including the early release of former dictator General (r) Pervez Musharraf,” the source said, adding that the premier had backtracked from his promise to allow a safe passage to Musharraf – an assurance conveyed to the army chief through Nisar and Shahbaz.
The source said that the interior minister was also “unhappy” over the influence enjoyed by some new players around the prime minister including Senator Ishaq Dar –finance minister and father-in-law of prime minister’s daughter.
“Dar had not only meddled into the affairs of Interior Ministry but had also refused to provide funds for NACTA in the federal budget presented recently in the Parliament,” the source said, adding that Nisar was also not happy with PM’s Special Assistant Irfan Siddiqui who was “always busy in lobbying against Nisar”.
“Just to humiliate Nisar, Siddiqui had leaked to the media all details of the dialogue held recently with Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). This was also raised before the prime minister by Major (r) Mohammad Amir, the team leader holding talks with the Taliban. Later on, Amir had even rescued himself from the dialogue process in protest against the role played by Siddiqui which ultimately resulted in failure of the dialogue process,” the source concluded.