ISLAMABAD: Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif and former interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan have talked over the phone and discussed party matters.
The contact had taken place on Friday where they had also discussed the controversial remarks of PML-N Senator Pervaiz Rashid. Both are expected to hold a formal meeting in coming couple of days. Nisar on Saturday said he will address a press conference on Sunday (today). The news accompanied media reports that PML-N leader and Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif had appealed to other party leaders to desist from attacking state institutions in their speeches and avoid any confrontation with organs of the state.
While it is not clear what Nisar’s press conference will be about, senior Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz politician Pervaiz Rashid’s criticism of the former interior minister on Friday had caused the latter to hit back, saying he did not know why “some people have put the burden of all their mistakes and blunders on the ministry of interior and the establishment”.
In a TV interview, the first salvo was fired by Rashid who sounded upset with Nisar on what the Interior Ministry could and could not have done during Nawaz Sharif’s third term as prime minister.
Without providing any details, he spoke of decisions taken by the ministry headed by Nisar that went against the PML-N. Nisar responded within no time and issued a statement through his spokesperson, saying Rashid should have explained as to what kind of help he expected from the ministry to “cover up their deeds”.
He also advised Rashid to ask “his government” to make public the news leak report – which led to Rashid’s ouster from office as information minister – to prove his innocence. The PML-N has been upping the ante in its rhetoric surrounding Nawaz Sharif’s ouster by the Supreme Court, framing the decision as part of a long-running conspiracy against democracy perpetrated by the ‘usual suspects’.
The party’s criticism of the legacy of dictatorships as the root cause behind Nawaz’s ouster has sometimes blurred the distinction between past dictators and the people heading state institutions.
For example, during his ‘homecoming’ rally from Islamabad to Lahore, Nawaz had accused the judiciary of being complicit in the military’s toppling of his preceding government while challenging it to hold dictators accountable the way, he said, civilian rulers are taken to task.
In a later interview, he also said he alone could not be held responsible for creating friction between state institutions.
Some party stalwarts, including Nisar and Shahbaz, have previously warned against such posturing, with the former interior minister saying at one point that there is too much at stake for Nawaz to create a situation that might result in conflict between institutions.
Published in Daily Times, August 20th 2017.
