ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said on Friday the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) had offered to cooperate with the government on two conditions: withdrawal of the money laundering case against supermodel Ayyan Ali and release of Dr Asim Hussain on bail.
“The PPP asked [the government] to take the Ayyan Ali case back and approve Dr Asim Hussain’s bail,” the interior minister said.
Addressing a press conference at the Punjab House in the federal capital, Khan said that air tickets for PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and the model were bought using the same bank account and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) was investigating the matter.
In response to the Indian allegations that Pakistan was fuelling unrest in the Indian-Occupied Kashmir, the interior minister said that Kashmiris’ struggle could not be suppressed through violence. “I want to tell India that the Kashmiri nation cannot be suppressed through such tactics; such a solution is not acceptable to any Pakistani,” he told reporters in Islamabad. The security czar said he did not ignore Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh at the recent SAARC summit in the federal capital. “Rajnath Singh walked out after my speech at the forum and later responded to it in India,” he said. He said the Indian home minister should talk about Prime Minister Narendra Modi who had been taking credit for breakup of Pakistan in 1971. “How can you remain silent when the person invited as a guest insults you?” he asked, referring to Singh’s remarks. He said that he registered his protest against the Indian atrocities against Kashmiris, not against the Indian home minister.
Khan said the blacklisted American national who was currently in the custody of the law enforcement agencies would be deported in a couple of days. “Matthew Barrett was deported in 2011 on Supreme Court’s orders after he was blacklisted, but he was issued a visa within 24 hours after he applied for it five years later,” he said. He dispelled the impression that Barrett was involved in spying in Pakistan. “He was found in a sensitive area, involved in scuffle with security agencies,” he said.
The interior minister said that gross irregularities were found in the visa application of the blacklisted US national and strict legal action was being taken against the official who issued him a visa.
Khan lashed out at the critics of the National Action Plan (NAP), stating that those who had not even read the NAP were commenting on it as analysts. He took exception to the PPP lawmakers who angrily reacted to his speech in the National Assembly earlier this week. He said that he praised PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari for the first time, but PPP leaders said that they did not need his appreciation. He said that those in power before the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) should have taken measures to counter terrorism in the country because Pakistan had been facing terrorism for the last 15 years. He said that some people wanted do stunts after his speech in the National Assembly and they did. He said that a certain group was criticising him.