KARACHI: Declaring that there was no room for those who did not believe in Pakistan and its Constitution to do politics in the country, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said on Saturday that the federal government was committed to continuing executing and supporting the ongoing operation to restore peace to Karachi until its ‘logical end’.

“There were reports in the media claiming that operations in Karachi have slowed down. I have got a briefing over the operations and say with confidence that there is no let-up in our resolve; though there are certain bottlenecks, the operations are not slow as being reported,” said the minister at a press conference at the Governor House after conclusion of his two-day visit to the city.

He said he would recommend to the prime minister to pay another visit of the city and preside over a meeting with civilian and military officials — both from Islamabad and Sindh — to energise the momentum vis-a-vis the operation in Karachi.

“We have to take this effort to its logical end, it is really important,” said Mr Nisar.

“Just three years ago, there was a man who had taken Pakistan’s largest city hostage. The city would get shut on his order and people were virtually at his mercy. Now, the situation is much better and the city and its people are free,” he said.

Recommends that the prime minister visit the city and preside over a meeting with civilian and military officials

He said Altaf Hussain and his companions did not believe in Pakistan and its Constitution and sought support from India, then how could they be brought into mainstream politics.

He said they should first declare that they believed in Pakistan and its Constitution and then they would be allowed to do politics in the country.

“Only those who believe in Pakistan can be allowed to do politics here.”

He, however, said there was a spike in street crimes, land grabbing and ‘China cutting’ and all the authorities should make their best efforts to eradicate them.

He said the federal government had increased fund allocation for Sindh Rangers from Rs7 billion to Rs12bn in the past three years. Similarly, he added, Islamabad was spending heavily on raising new civil armed forces and had spent Rs88bn in less than two years in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in this regard.

He said the government had strengthened the security of the country’s borders, adding that not a single person could pass the Torkham border with Afghanistan without a valid passport, while up to 50,000 people would pass without documents daily from that border three years ago.

He said the coastguards had effectively secured the coastline of the country, which was earlier being abused for rampant smuggling, human trafficking, etc.

He said similar security arrangements — fencing and installation of gates — were being made along other borders with Afghanistan and Iran.

Regarding ‘disappearance’ of three close aides to former president Asif Zardari, he said two of them had gone missing from Sindh and the provincial government was responsible for the law and order. “How can I know when the Sindh government said it had no clue about them?”

He said his party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, had earlier held a meeting with the PML-Functional, and would meet other parties in Sindh in the coming weeks in a bid to offer an ‘alternative’ to the people of the province who were being ruled by a single party since a decade.

“Sindh deserves better than what it is suffering now.”

He said every district in the country would have a passport office after May 31. He said there were just 95 such offices till 2013 and his government had opened 72 new ones.

He said there were 14,000 post offices and there was a plan to open offices of the National Database and Registration Authority on the same pattern across the country.

“All the provincial governments have been requested to allot lands for new Nadra offices.”

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2017