Nisar in liaison with LEAs over Karachi operation

ISLAMABAD: On behalf of the federal government, interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan is mainly coordinating and liaising with intelligence and law enforcement agencies regarding targeted operations against criminals in Karachi.
“His role and responsibility enhanced after the March 11 Rangers’ raid on the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) headquarters Nine Zero and a confessional statement recorded by convicted target killer Saulat Mirza from the death cell, naming names, and fast developments in its wake,” a senior official told The News.
He said that since the interior ministry was supposed to answer questions about the ongoing execution of death row inmates and the postponement of hanging of Mirza and Shafqat Hussain, the concerned agencies were closely working with Chaudhry Nisar all the time.
In addition, the official said, it is the interior ministry that is presenting the government’s side of the story on different developments, which needed to be responded politically and quickly. “Law enforcers are in no position to always defend their actions and they require the government to speak about their actions.”
He said the interior ministry was dealing with Saulat Mirza’s case and will proceed further with the approval of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. The deferment of his execution is being extended beyond three days and the case of murder of Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) managing director Malik Shahid Hamid is being reopened.
The official believed that a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) would possibly be formed to probe the case afresh in the light of the claims of Saulat Mirza. “But it is beyond doubt in the light of Mirza’s confessional statement that he, along with others, killed the KESC chief. Therefore, the convict can’t escape punishment.”
Shahid Hamid’s son, Omar, who is a Superintendent of Police (SP), has ruled out the possibility of forgiving his father’s killer. “My father was shot dead while performing his official duties; and the murder was not due to any personal enmity or grudge. My father was working for a government entity in 1977 at a time when its labour union was involved in corrupt practices with the backing of a political party. My father’s ‘crime’ was that he wanted to eliminate corruption in KESC. If we back down from such cases, more will happen and weaken the writ of the state. The case of this murder was registered 18 years ago and we had clearly stated in the complaint that a political party had a hand in the killing. We still stand by our statement.”
The official said the JIT might also take the assistance of the family of the slain official about the ‘political party’ it had named in its complaint.He said further proceedings in the case would be guided by the advice of the legal team of the federal government. “The interior minister will also coordinate with the Sindh administration in this connection because the provincial government has to be on board.”
The official said all the work like presenting the government’s point of view in the National Assembly and at other forums on the cases pertaining to Saulat Mirza, Shafqat Hussain and Dr Imran Farooq has been left to the interior ministry, which is the concerned department.
As a storm hit the political landscape in the wake of the Rangers’ operation at Nine Zero, it was only the interior minister, who not only defended the action single-handedly but also justified it while there was total silence from the federal government.
The official said that the government has no plan to comfort the MQM and has made it clear that there would be no leniency to criminal elements regardless of their political affiliations.He said that the MQM has been assured that there would not be and had not been any discrimination against it during the present targeted operation. “It has been told that it should also get rid of elements involved in criminal activities.”
At no stage, the official said, the MQM has been assured that the ongoing campaign, which was started with the consensus of all political parties to purge Karachi of target killers, kidnappers for ransom, extortionists and mafias, would be toned down to assuage any entity.