LAHORE: Surgical strikes are being carried out on the political and governance systems of the country, destabilising both, said Federal Minister for Interior Ashan Iqbal in a veiled reference to recent decisions by the Supreme Court.

Talking to the media at a private university in the city, he said these actions are only creating impression of, what he called, “targeted political killing”. What needs to be understood is the fact that if democratic process gets hurt in this kind of situation, everyone would suffer, he said.

“Parliament is the supreme institution in the country. It is parliament that decides how many judges the SC would have. It reflects collective will of over 200 million people and must be respected as such. Pakistan is facing internal and external challenges that demand national unity, not division,” he said.

He was of the opinion that full benefit of FATF would come after June. Pakistan had taken a lot of steps for checking terror financing and is winning war against terrorism. He said Pakistan had already conveyed to the US that peace in Afghanistan depends on cooperation between both countries.

Earlier, addressing the university students, he said the government started dealing with national issues immediately after coming to power and has been successful on a number of fronts. It is giving particular attention to education and training of students: distribution of laptops is one example of the same commitment. “We need to compete on economic agenda, not on sit-ins or politics of disruption,” he advised.

Published in Dawn, February 25th, 2018