Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan's absence from high-level security meetings held in Karachi following Wednesday's brutal killing of 45 members of the Ismaili community in an attack on their bus, has further strengthened the perception of his serious differences with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. A close aide of the minister told Business Recorder on Saturday that interior secretary participated in the recent meetings held to discuss law and order situation and which were attended by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif and other senior civil and military leadership.
"Chaudhry Nisar was not feeling well that day and couldn't participate in the meetings," he said, adding that the minister has given top priority to the security-related issues and law and order. However, another source, on the condition of anonymity, acknowledged that differences between the interior minister and the PM have deepened during the past few months.
"The minister feels that he has been isolated by some other federal ministers and the PM no longer consults him before taking important decisions concerning his ministry," he said. Differences between the PM and the interior minister began soon after the PML-N government took oath over the issue of initiating treason trial against former president and ex-army chief Pervez Musharraf under Article 6 of the Constitution, the source stated.
As relations between the government and the armed forces deteriorated in the wake of Musharraf's trial, Chaudhry Nisar and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif tried to resolve the issue by convincing the PM to let Musharraf go after his indictment, the source said, adding that though the PM initially agreed to their proposal, later reneged on the deal following Khawaja Asif's made an `impassioned' speech on the floor of National Assembly against army's intervention in civilian matters - a speech that many believed was approved by the prime minister and which further widened the differences between the civilian and military leadership.
Of late, performance of the minister was being compromised in the wake of finance ministry's failure to provide him with the necessary funds to implement the National Internal Security Policy (NISP) and National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA). It was for the first time in the country's history that the interior minister presented the NISP in parliament for approval and sought some Rs 22 billion for its implementation, he said adding "the ministry has not been given even a single penny for implementation of the policy despite Chaudhry Nisar's repeated efforts."
Allocation for NACTA in the federal budget 2014-15 was reduced to Rs 92 million from Rs 95m, reflecting government's low priority in tackling terrorism-related issues. Elaborating, the sources said that of the total Rs 92m, a huge amount of Rs 63m was allocated under the head of employees' expenditures, while Rs 21m were earmarked for operational expenditures. Moreover, the interior minister, who was pursuing the case of MQM's Dr Imran Farooq's killing in London, has now virtually abandoned his efforts to implement the NISP or make the NACTA an effective body, the sources claimed.