No harm transpired from Islamabad standoff: Interior Minister

ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan Wednesday said that he was satisfied that no harm transpired from the Islamabad standoff involving the accused Malik Sikander, who is still alive and now in police custody.

Addressing the Senate, Chaudhry Nisar said further information was being extracted from the detained Malik Sikander.

Reacting to the criticism mainly from the opposition parties on his role during the standoff in the Capital city, the Interior Minister derogatorily said that the episode did not go on for five hours rather it still continues. “The matter must not be stretched so much that even a good deed of someone starts to look bad,” he regretted.

He said the very first demand of Malik Sikander was to reach the Parliament House, therefore, he was satisfied that at the end of the day no harm was caused.

“Don’t raise the status of Zamarud Khan to that of a peer as you did in the case of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto,” he snapped. However, he admitted that Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was a great politician.

He said 17 questions have been thrown his way in only two months since the new government assumed power and that he could put forth 117 queries over the previous government’s five-year long tenure. Those who ruled the country for five and eight years respectively in the past should also put themselves through self-accountability, he added.

Nisar regretted that those who were talking today about resignations did not bother to do so even once in their stint over the past five years.