ISLAMABAD, May 31: The government came under fire on Tuesday over what opposition called its failure to maintain law and order in the country as the Senate debated the latest violence in Karachi and a suspected suicide bombing on a shrine outside Islamabad. But Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao called for patience and assured the house that the government was doing all possible to carry out its war against terror.

“I assure you there is no slackness (on the part of security agencies) and the writ of the government is in place,” the minister said while winding up a long debate that went on till late at night with a total of 27 other speakers, mostly from the opposition.

The house was adjourned until 10.30am on Wednesday when it will begin a debate on the alleged desecration of the Holy Quran by US interrogators at their Guantanamo Bay (Cuba) prison.

Mr Sherpao said last Friday’s suicide bomb attack at the Bari Imam shrine near Islamabad and the incidents in Karachi happened despite government precautions because foolproof security could not be provided anywhere in such situations.

He said the Bari Imam attack and the latest Karachi violence that continued on Tuesday showed that “whoever is doing it wants to engulf the country”.

Mr Rabbani said the present law and order situation showed that “there is no writ of either the federal government or a provincial government and the life and property of every citizen was at stake”.

“The state has completely failed in its duty to maintain law and order in the country,” he said and regretted that Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz had left for a visit to Turkey without taking the Senate into confidence about the internal situation.

He said the government was importing more bullet-proof vehicles for government functionaries but doing little for the security of common citizens. “So long as the government does not correct its priorities and there is no complete democracy you cannot effectively combat terrorism whether inside or outside the country,” he said.

Earlier at the start of the session, Mr Rabbani led a token opposition walkout to demonstrate solidarity with the workers of the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd (PTCL) protesting against the planned privatisation of their organisation.