Interior minister: Lots of talk, no traction
Ch Nisar’s overconfidence can only be matched by his lack of performance. He has answers to all security related problems but they are never put to test. With Ch Nisar lording over the interior ministry all is well with the country. Fine, provided things would not happen to prove that he was only pipe dreaming. Within days of being appointed minister, the Chauhdry had devised a perfect plan for the security of the capital city which inter alia included reining in the spoilt brats of the upper class. He was to order computerization of cases at police stations and appoint a go-getter as the capital’s police chief. With all these assurances who could feel insecure? Everyone naturally got a rude shock when a lone gunman held the capital hostage for five hours, and, with the interior minister being on leave, none in the city administration was willing to decide how to disarm the man.
On Tuesday Ch Nisar said the National Counter-Terrorism Authority (NACTA) would be revived as a major organization. One had hoped this would have been done by now. The idea was first floated on June 19 when the media was told that Ch Nisar had initiated in-house brainstorming to turn NACTA into an effective body. It appears that the interior ministry did pretty little other than toying with the idea all these months. What Nisar said about improving coordination between intelligence agencies by creating a joint intelligence directorate is yet another mantra that he has continued to recite over the last four months. The only development that has taken place is to include in the plan a rapid response force with an air wing as an add-on. The plan thus goes on expanding without gaining traction. Preliminary work for talks with the Pakistani Taliban has been completed in consultation with the ‘stakeholders’, we have now been assured by the interior minister. Further, the process of dialogue with Taliban was likely to begin in near future (mark the ‘likely’ and the vagueness regarding timing!).
And now a pearl of wisdom in the latest remarks: “The minister said the society was facing degeneration for which all people were responsible”. This exonerates the government from accountability. If there is corruption, extremism, inertia or a growing alienation, the blame is to be put on “all people”. In days to come “all” is likely to be dropped to make “people” responsible for all the acts of omission and commission on the part of their rulers.
