ISLAMABAD: In their reaction to the press conference held by Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Thursday, opposition parties said it had indicated severe external threats to the country and cracks within the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) vice chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who served as foreign minister in the last Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government, said external powers were making efforts to isolate Pakistan. “The Trump administration is devising a new policy for the South Asian region which may affect Pakistan,” he said.

He said Chaudhry Nisar had given a message to the prime minister that he should honour the Supreme Court’s verdict in the Panama Papers case. “We will face chaos if we will not respect the verdict.”

Talking about the possible removal of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif through the verdict, the PTI leader said he had advised the premier to step down and let someone else from his party replace him so that the democratic process could continue.

Mr Qureshi said the minister had also demanded that the Supreme Court announce its decision immediately to rid the country of the prevailing stalemate.

Punjab PPP president Qamar Zaman Kaira said Chaudhry Nisar had aired his personal grievances instead of addressing national issues. “His problems were solely personal and they should not be linked with national issues.”

Due to the prevailing situation, nothing was being done in the federal ministries and the business community was also sitting idle, he said.

Awami Muslim League chief Sheikh Rashid said Chaudhry Nisar had mentioned severe threats hovering over the country.

The minister had ‘missed the train’, he said, apparently referring to the PML-N leader’s indecision.

“I had met Chaudhry Nisar’s father who told me that the son he wanted to go to the army had joined politics and the one who had joined the military should have become a politician,” he said.

He said this time the minister had taken a good decision by announcing his plan to resign after the court verdict.

“Last time he faced imprisonment for crimes he had not committed,” Sheikh Rashid said, referring to the 1999 military coup when many PML-N leaders were arrested.

Jamaat-i-Islami chief Sirajul Haq said the press conference had proved that not only the prime minister but also the government should be disqualified.

He said Chaudhry Nisar should have heard the voice of his conscience and advised the prime minister to step down before the announcement of the court’s verdict.

PML-N response

Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said the PML-N leadership should address the concerns of Chaudhry Nisar who had some differences with another party leader. “I know that Chaudhry Nisar has some problem with another party leader and I cannot disclose his name,” he said.

He said the PTI had introduced a culture of abusive language while staging a protest on a container in Islamabad in 2014 and that was why the interior minister had said that he was fed up with the ‘dirty politics’.

The Punjab minister agreed that the country was surrounded by threats and said, therefore, the parties should not fight each other and should think about the country. “We are being encircled by the threats and our judges should also pay attention to it,” he added.

Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2017