AS father of a kidnapped son, Yousuf Raza Gilani had a point when he expressed his anguish over the interior minister’s decision to report the existence of a video showing his son’s plight in captivity. The contents of the video were a source of torment to the family, because Ali Haider said his kidnappers had kept him in chains and that his family and the government were not doing enough for his release.

The former prime minister wasn’t wide of the mark when he said Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan’s decision was an irresponsible one. For the interior minister, Ali Haider is one of numerous people who are kidnapped in Pakistan almost daily, but for Mr Gilani the captive is his son whose life is in danger. Almost a year has passed since

Mr Haider was kidnapped, but the government still has no clue as to the kidnappers’ identity. Yet, without sharing the video with the family, the interior minister chose to inform the media about it and, based on Ali Haider’s remarks, declared that the outlawed TTP wasn’t involved in the kidnapping. How is Chaudhry Nisar so sure of this? Didn’t it occur to the minister that the TTP would want to be absolved of the crime? Obviously, if they accepted this act of kidnapping, they would be asked to free him — and Shahbaz Taseer and former VC of Peshawar University Ajmal Khan — because an obliging government had already released 19 Taliban ‘non-combatants’.

What is at play is not only irresponsibility but the utter lack of professionalism in dealing with cold-blooded and ferocious militants. If the minister lacked expertise in this, the least he could have done was to seek guidance from the Karachi-based Citizen-Police Liaison Committee, which has decades of experience in dealing with kidnappings and securing the freedom of a number of victims. The issue is the government’s mindset, for the consistency with which it has been kowtowing to the Taliban seems to be in display in this case, too.