Photo courtesy PID
Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah on Thursday described the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)’s claiming of responsibility for a suicide attack in Quetta as “alarming,” stressing the banned group’s activities threaten peace in Pakistan as well as its surrounding region.
“The TTP is enjoying all sorts of facilities in Afghanistan,” he told a press conference in Islamabad, emphasizing that the Taliban-led interim government in the neighboring state should be concerned over the TTP’s activities. Noting that Pakistan has been extending every possible assistance for peace in Afghanistan, he recalled that Kabul had pledged to the world that its soil would no longer be used by any terrorist group.
“If they follow through with this, it is not only in the benefit of Pakistan but it is also for their own benefit,” he said. “If the TTP is present there [in Afghanistan] and is carrying out terrorist activities here, their soil is being used [for terrorism] contrary to their claims,” he added.
On the recent surge of terrorism nationwide, Sanaullah claimed it would not be allowed to spiral out of control. “Don’t think that this is going out of control or that some group will become out of reach,” he said. Lamenting that Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan had not attended a recent security meeting chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, he stressed the need for provincial governments, security agencies and authorities—especially from Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa—to address the issue of rising militancy in an effective manner.
“They need to take this matter seriously, and whenever they will need the help of the federal government and its agencies, we will assist them without any delay,” he vowed. “Political matters aside, we have to play our role according to the system. I believe it is the KP C.M.’s responsibility to seek the help he needs from the federation and to address these matters,” he added.
Assemblies’ dissolution
Discussing Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan’s stated plans to dissolve the KP and Punjab assemblies in a bid to force early elections, the minister accused the ousted prime minister of “attempting to spread anarchy and chaos.” Claiming the “failure” of the PTI’s long march was a golden opportunity for Khan to return to Parliament and negotiate with rival politicians, he lamented that Khan had instead sought to stoke further uncertainty.
“The economy cannot strengthen when there’s political uncertainty in the country,” he said. “When they [PTI] were in government their agenda was to eliminate Opposition and now they are trying to destabilize the country,” he added.
“He [Khan] should have sat down with politicians. Deadlocks are broken when politicians sit down together,” asserted Sanaullah, recalling that the parties comprising the ruling coalition had differences of opinion on various matters, but achieved compromise through dialogue.
“This man [Khan] has stooped so low,” he said. “He only has one thing on his mind: whatever he says should be accepted,” he said, adding that the PTI chief’s abuse of former Army chief Gen. (retd.) Qamar Javed Bajwa showed he had “no humanity or shame.”
On the PTI’s plans to exit only the KP and Punjab assemblies, Sanaullah questioned why Khan’s “exit from the corrupt system” did not also extend to the Senate, Gilgit-Baltistan, and President Arif Alvi. To media reports of the PTI wanting to wait till Dec. 20 to dissolve the assemblies, he questioned why the party wished to wait rather than proceeding with its plans immediately.
Reiterating concerns already raised by several of the PTI’s rival parties, the interior minister said Khan’s plans to dissolve the assemblies in KP and Punjab risked jeopardizing free and fair general elections. If a new government had been formed in the provinces prior to the general elections, he said, they would not have caretaker governments when the general election takes place. “An attempt is being made to damage the system for free and fair elections,” he claimed, hinting at the PTI “rigging” the polls through their provincial governments.
Stressing that the ruling coalition was ready to go to polls, he said the federal government would not play any part in the PTI’s “unconstitutional” decision to dissolve the assemblies. “We are not scared,” he emphasized. “Our stance is for assemblies to complete their terms, which was once also their [PTI’s] stance [when they were in power],” he added.