Interior minister’s ways
Over the last three years of the PML-N tenure Ch Nisar has distinguished himself as the most inappropriate person for holding the vital portfolio of interior ministry. Ch Nisar has proved himself to be incompetent and a person who singularly lacks a sense of emergency. The interior minister invariably disappears and loses the faculty of speech whenever a major terrorist incident takes place. He preferred to remain silent when terrorists attacked Karachi airport, proceeding to the port city and the country’s industrial hub twenty two hours after the incident and that too when expressly directed by the prime minister. Immediately after the recent Quetta attack the COAS ordered combing operations and both the prime minister and military chief visited Quetta. Ch Nisar, as usual, remained in Islamabad maintaining silence. And when he broke silence two days later, it was to reprimand the politicians over questioning the efficiency of intelligence agencies asking them instead to condemn India. Nisar did pretty little to activate NACTA for more than two years. He was supposed to oversee the implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP) also but again failed to deliver.
On Tuesday Sindh High Court released Axact CEO Shoaib Shaikh and 14 others on bail after 15 months in custody. The defence lawyer maintained before the court that FIA had failed to indict the accused despite detaining him for more than a year and were employing delaying tactics. The incident underlines not only the shortcomings of the FIA but also raises questions about the performance of the interior minister under whom the Agency works.
The best way for the prime minister was to hand over the interior ministry to a more energetic and effective PML-N parliamentarian. Before handing over a crucial part of Ch Nisar’s duties to the NSA, a retired general, the prime minster should have taken into account the public perception of the decision. This would lead the government’s critics to claim that it continues to yield its turf to the establishment.
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