Country without interior minister for over a month

ISLAMABAD: As the general elections are approaching and the country is facing a new wave of terrorism, the sensitive Ministry of Interior has been without a caretaker minister for five weeks.

The Ministry of Interior is considered a full-time ministry as the minister has to coordinate with the provinces on matters of law and order. It has been more than 35 days since the resignation of Sarfraz Bugti as the caretaker interior minister.

Sarfraz Bugti resigned from his post on December 15 to participate in the election. Since then, the caretaker prime minister has not been able to appoint a caretaker interior minister.

According to the rules, if a ministry is not given to anyone, then the in-charge minister is the prime minister himself. At present, the prime minister himself is the minister in charge of the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Housing and Construction, Poverty Alleviation, Security Division, Council of Common Interests, Cabinet Division and Establishment Division. According to sources, many administrative and security issues are emerging due to the absence of caretaker interior minister. The performance of CDA, Passport Office, NADRA and other important institutions is also affected. The number of pending cases of normal passports has reached 600,000.