Islamabad: In the wake of a report on the “monumental failure” of his ministry to combat militancy, Pakistan’s Interior Minister, Chaudhry Nisar, has said he offered to resign over the damning revelation.
The one-man commission report by Justice Qazi Faez Isa over the attack in Quetta on August 8, in which about 70 people, mostly lawyers, were killed, has been released by the Supreme Court.
It highlighted the “monumental failure” of the Interior Ministry to combat terrorism and targeted Nisar for failure to respond to questions by the inquiry.
He was also taken to task for holding a meeting with leaders of a banned outfit in Islamabad.
Nisar addressed a press conference on Saturday and said he was ready to resign and defend his role in combating terrorism.
“I went to the Prime Minister [Nawaz Sharif] to tell him that I wanted to resign from my position but was told by him that the decision was unacceptable,” he said.
Nisar termed the report “one-sided” and alleged that it was released without including the Interior Ministry’s point of view.
He also said the report was used by opposition for “personal attacks” on him.
“I had decided to respond to the allegations much earlier as media resorted to personality bashing for the last two days,” he said.
Nisar said he resisted from responding to allegations as it could lead to harming the national institutions and war against terrorism.
He said if a judge had the privilege of integrity, everyone else reserved the same right. Nisar said he would hold the current job only with integrity.
Nisar said there had been only 774 incidents of terrorism in the country during the current year as opposed to nearly 10,000 such incidents from 2007 until 2013.
Opposition Pakistan Peoples Party had demanded his resignation after the report was released.
The party also submitted a motion against Nisar in Parliament to discuss whether the Interior Minister was incapable of playing a role in combating terrorism.
