Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal has alleged that a troika of
some disheartened politicians, retired military officials and
journalists is hatching conspiracies against the government.
Speaking on a DawnNews
programme on Wednesday, he reiterated that the country was going
through a sensitive phase and civil-military relations is the most
sensitive fault line for the future of Pakistan. "If we manage to
organise the civil-military relations, we will win the war for
Pakistan," he said.
A lot of mistrust exists among
politicians towards the establishment and within the establishment
towards politicians, Iqbal said, adding that the government has to
tackle the situation very carefully.
The minister said
that according to his findings after thoroughly observing the history of
martial laws in the country, no martial law was imposed because of a
political failure or crisis. All the marital laws were triggered by army
chiefs when they found their jobs in jeopardy, he said.
Talking
about the visible vacuum in political circles, he said leadership plays
a vital role in political parties and a vacuum is created when the
political leadership — particularly in the case of the PML-N — is
expelled in an unnatural manner.
He defended the
"bitterness" in the tone of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and said
it was justified. Explaining the reasons behind this bitterness, he
maintained that despite showing his assets worth tens of millions of
rupees, he was disqualified because he had been entitled to a salary of
nearly Rs0.15 million.
The chief executive of the country
was expelled without providing a chance to appeal whereas even a
government employee of grade-4 is provided with a chance to appeal
thrice against the termination, the minister alleged.
He said that politicians, judiciary, and armed forces should not show irresponsibility.
In
a veiled reference to the impression that some politicians compel the
army to take over, he said, "Both the person who tempts and the person
who gets tempted breach the Constitution."
