In response to Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari’s claim about the Federal Investigation Agency’s ‘mistreatment’ of the PPP, Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said on Wednesday that he is ready for a judicial commission to probe the FIA’s role and activities during the past two-and-a-half years.
The statement issued by the Ministry of Interior on behalf of Chaudhry Nisar said, “I can confirm that during my tenure, I have not used the FIA for political, illegal, or personal means, nor permitted the influence of any external or foreign pressure.”
“I have emphasised in my meetings that the staff are not servants of the government, but of the state.”
The statement added, “I am not concerned with how the FIA was run by previous governments, but I have striven with a clean heart to build the FIA into a non-political and professional investigative institution. The FIA’s anti-corruption activities have caused a benefit of Rs 14.6 billion to the state during the past two years, whereas in previous years this amount was only a few million.”
“Despite this, I believe that there is still much left to do, and the FIA does need to be cleaned from within. But there is one thing I would like Asif Zardari and others to understand, as long as I am Interior Minister, the FIA will not be used against innocents or for political means.”