Pakistan's Pro-Taliban Interior Minister - ''Nisar’s ineptitude''

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar has become nothing less than a liability and an embarrassment to the government of Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif, and needs to be relieved of the critical position he holds as soon as possible. That much has become abundantly clear after an ill-tempered and disastrous press conference where he once again betrayed his lack of attitudinal and ideological suitability for the job of being Pakistan’s security chief. At an event organised by National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) to launch an unrelated passport fee collection service, Chaudhry Nisar fired several salvos at his political opponents belonging to Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), who have been critical of his performance in the aftermath of the deadly attack at Bacha Khan University (BKU) and for his role in misleading parliament regarding the status of Maulana Abdul Aziz of Lal Masjid. In his attempts to defend his ministry’s performance regarding the implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP), the Interior Minister’s tactic of choice was to sling mud at his opponents. But so caught up was he in this exercise that he thought nothing of throwing his own political party, and the PM he is supposed to serve, under the bus. Nisar contended that the PPP leadership was playing politics in a “time of war” and was thus fulfilling the agenda of the terrorists by spreading “despair” and “panic”. Then he went further and asserted that the PPP and PML-N had in fact “colluded” during the protests launched by PTI in 2014 and that Khursheed Shah, the Leader of the Opposition, “used his position to get benefits from the government”.

One fails to comprehend what was going on in the mind of the Minister when he made this claim. Khursheed Shah has rightly noted that this statement, which was ostensibly meant to question the credibility of the PPP leader, could be interpreted as an indictment of the PM by one of his own lieutenants. In any case, the PPP leadership has always stated clearly that they were not angling to protect the government but the democratic system, which was under threat of destabilisation. The libellous press conference of Nisar has not turned the tide against his critics but only strengthened calls for his ouster. Accusations have been rife that Chaudhry Nisar has sympathies and links with various militant elements. His handling of the Abdul Aziz case as well as his lack of timely condemnation of the BKU attack only lend credence to this charge. And now he has gone on to stab his own PM in the back. Whatever qualities or advantages the PM thought Chaudhry Nisar would bring to this critical post have clearly not borne fruit. A man with such a cloud around his reputation should not be in charge of Pakistan’s security affairs. The PM should replace Chaudhry Nisar before he does more damage.