RAWALPINDI: Terming it a campaign against opposition parties, former interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Saturday raised questions over the pro­cedure of accountability curr­­ently being car­­ri­ed out by different agen­cies in the country.

Talking to media personnel here, he said that the fake accounts case was initiated by the Supreme Court, but the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government while trying to own it was making the whole accountability process controversial.

“I am not against accountability, but the accountability process currently going on in the country is not transparent,” he said. Rese­rvations being exp­ressed by the opposition parties on the current accountability process shou­ld be addressed to make it transparent, otherwise it would simply be called political victimisation, he added.

The senior politician said that the country was facing a serious political crisis and in this situation it was a better option to remain silent.

He said the government should understand that it could not function properly without an opposition. Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari were not only faces of the opposition. They were, in fact, leaders of political parties which played the role of an opposition, he added.

He said the accountability process was being conducted by state institutions and not by the government. But, he added, they both could be accountable for it if it was not transparent. Furthermore, he said, the people would accept the opposition parties’ narrative of political victimisation if the accountability process was not transparent.

Mr Khan broke his silence on the 2018 general election and raised questions over its credibility and results. Expressing doubts over the results of his constituency, he said how could it be possible that his votes in election for a National Assembly seat were reduced while his votes in election for a provincial assembly seat were increased.

The former federal minister, however, did not answer the question why he had so far not taken the oath of the Punjab Assembly seat he had won in the July election.

Chaudhry Nisar said that had the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leadership taken his advice seriously the party would have been in power now, adding that he had advised the party leadership against directly criticising the army and the judiciary.

The former federal minister criticised Prime Minister Imran Khan for repeatedly calling for resumption of Pakistan’s dialogue with India. He claimed that the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in India was not interested in holding talks with Pakistan. PM Khan’s repeated plea for resumption of dialogue was contrary to the national honour, he added.

Rejecting the government’s claim of getting the credit for the opening of the Kartarpur Corridor, he said the credit for this development rested with Chief of the Army Staff Qamar Javed Bajwa.

Published in Dawn, December 30th, 2018