ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan admitted on Sunday that remarks made recently by some federal ministers about the army and the response from the latter had caused an ‘irritant’ in the otherwise excellent civil-military relationship.

“Yes, there is an irritant but we will overcome it,” he said when asked to comment on the situation after the scathing criticism of the army by Khawaja Asif and Khawaja Saad Rafiq and the reported response from the army chief and other generals at the recent corps commanders conference.

He said there had been ‘100 per cent understanding’ between the army and the government on all issues. The civil-military relationship had never been as positive in the past as they were today, he said, adding that the government had no problem in working with the former army chief, Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, and the present army chief, Gen Raheel Sharif.

According to the minister, the present civil-military relationship is “frank, innocent and Pakistan-focussed”. He said they had successfully ‘ironed out’ differences of opinion in the past.