Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has made it clear that Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari had not returned to the country under any deal.

Talking to the media at the Punjab House on Saturday, the interior minister said that the government did not even give any guarantee regarding the former president’s return, and added that neither Zardari’s name was on the Exit Control List, nor was he involved in any case.

He defended the Sindh Rangers’ action on Friday by saying that those raids had nothing to do with Zardari’s return. He said that the Rangers recovered weapons during those raids and investigations were underway in this regard.

The interior minister criticised the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) policy of plea bargain, and said benefited the thieves. He called for amendments to the NAB laws, and said that the Supreme Court should appoint the NAB chairman. He also stressed the need for making this important institution completely independent.

He said he would submit his detailed response to the Quetta Commission’s inquiry report in the Supreme Court. Nisar clarified that he was not a candidate for premiership, but said he had been offered this important portfolio on different occasions. He also said that he had never used backdoors to get any important position.

He said that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government only had one-and-a-half year left in its tenure, but the issues of load shedding and security were yet to be fully resolved. He said that the media could hold the government’s trial, but the real judges were the masses, who would decide the party’s fate in 2018 polls.

On Musharraf’s issue, the interior minister said that he had not been pressurised from any quarter to let the former president leave the country. “We just implemented court orders,” he said, adding that Musharraf was moving freely during the PPP’s tenure, and no one took action against him.

To a question regarding supermodel Ayan Ali, Chaudhry Nisar said that he did not put her name on the ECL – the committee on the request of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) decided to ban her exit from Pakistan. He said the Punjab government had also requested putting her name on the ECL because they wanted to investigate a murder case.