Party will be hurt if I tell reasons for not joining cabinet: Nisar

ISLAMABAD: PML-N leader and former interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Sunday said it would be damaging for the party if he disclosed the reasons for not joining the federal cabinet.

Addressing a press conference here, the estranged PML-N leader said he would not disclose why he’d refused to join the federal cabinet, as this was not the right time to do so. He thanked Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and ex-PM Nawaz Sharif for their efforts to convince him to join the cabinet.

“There were several causes that led me to quit the ministry,” Nisar said, adding, “I had already announced that I would leave the cabinet following the Supreme Court verdict. “No one quits … even councillorship voluntarily, but I gave up the interior ministry on principles,” he said. He dismissed the rumors that he had left politics.

“I had said I will not leave the party but quit the cabinet whatever the SC verdict would be,” he said questioning as to how many ministers in history had left ministership for the sake of principles.

Nisar said he used to express difference of opinion openly in the party and cabinet meetings but he never leaked discussion about differences in the party. “Whosoever did so committed dishonesty,” he said. He rejected the impression that he had quit ministership for a big slot.

“How a person who spent his whole political life in a party can take this decision for a slot,” he said. Listing the accomplishments of the interior ministry over the last four years under his leadership, Nisar said law and order had considerably improved during the last three years. Nisar said the decision to hold an inquiry into the News Leaks was ordered by the federal government and not by the interior ministry.

“The government should make the inquiry report public,” he said. He said General Kiani and Lt. Gen. Zaheerul Islam Abbasi were on board on the issue of talks with the Taliban while political parties, including the PPP, ANP and MQM, were against the decision.

Nisar said the decision to start Karachi operation was taken with the approval of the prime minister on August 27, 2013 following a terrorist attack on the Karachi airport. “Law and order is a provincial subject, but whenever a mishap occurs, the interior ministry is blamed. However, everyone is ready to take credit for a good work.

Today no network of terrorists exists in the country and terror graph has come down. There used to be four to five blasts every day in June 2013 but today there are no blasts,” he said. He said it Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s announcement that automatic weapons should be banned was surprising, as his ministry had already taken the decision in this regard.

“About 32,000 illegal Pakistani passports issued to foreigners and 200,000 prohibited bore licences were also cancelled,” he said. He said General Pervaiz Musharraf was allowed to leave the country as per directives of the Supreme Court.

“The interior ministry wanted to stop him but he was allowed by the court,” he said, adding critics should read verdicts of the Supreme Court and Sindh High Court. He said it is not the interior ministry but the courts which allow bail to an accused.

Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said those who criticise the interior ministry do not understand the legal authority and jurisdiction which is limited under the Constitution. Nisar said he had also prepared a 40-page brief of his ministry’s performance in four years.

“My ministry and I drew fire whether it was related to giving permission for a public meeting or following blasts at Shahbaz Qalandar’s shrine without knowing authority of the ministry,” he regretted.