ISLAMABAD / LAHORE: The Pakistan Peoples Party continued its war of words with Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, flaying his lack of action over the recent bombing in Parachinar, which claimed at least 25 lives and left scores more injured.

In a statement issued on Sunday, PPP Senator Saeed Ghani reiterated their demand for the minister’s resignation, dubbing the attack “another failure of his ministry”.

He said that a banned extremist organisation had taken responsibility for the tragic attack, and accused the minister of being silent on the issue. “Recently, 25 people were killed and dozens of others were injured in [a] tragic incident, but the interior minister has not said even a single word on [the matter], rather, he levelled allegations.”

In his statement, the PPP senator alleged that Chaudhry Nisar went into hiding and started criticising the PPP whenever a terrorist attack took place in the country, simply to cover up his own failures.

Mr Ghani said the National Action Plan (NAP) was chalked out to eradicate all sorts of terrorism, but the interior minister was implementing it according to his own sweet will. “It is one of the biggest dilemmas of the country that interior minister has no awareness [of] what is terrorism,” he said.

The opposition senator said the victims of the Parachinar terrorist attack should be given due attention and care. “They should also be considered human beings and Pakistanis,” he said.

He also expressed dissatisfaction over the announced monetary assistance to the victims of the Parachinar blast, saying that the Fata administration had only added to the pain of the victims’ families by pledging such a meagre amount. “Victims of the attack do not want money, but justice,” he concluded.

Meanwhile, talking to Dawn in Lahore, Mr Ghani said PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and former president Asif Ali Zardari would be the members of the National Assembly before the mid of this year.

“We reject rumours that Mr Zardari is reviewing his decision to contest by-poll on an NA seat. Both Mr Zardari and Mr Bilawal are going to contest on NA-213 (Nawabshah) and NA-204 (Larkana) seats, respectively, and will be part of parliament before June, 2017,” he said.

Published in Dawn, January 23rd, 2017