Offered to quit after report on failure to combat terror:Nisar

Pakistan's Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar today said that he offered to resign after he faced severe criticism following a damning report about his failure to combat militancy in the country.

The one-man commission report by Justice Qazi Faez Isa about the attack in Quetta on August 8 in which about 70 people, mostly lawyers, were killed, was released by the Supreme Court on Thursday.

It highlighted the "monumental failure" of the interior ministry to combat terrorism and targeted Nisar for failure to respond to questions by the inquiry.

He was also taken to task for holding a meeting with leaders of banned outfit in Islamabad.
 

Nisar addressed a press conference and said he was ready to resign and defend his role in combating terrorism.

"I went to the Prime Minister (Nawaz Sharif) to tell him that I wanted to resign from my position but was told by him that the decision was unacceptable," he said.

The Interior Minister termed the report as one sided which he alleged was released without including the interior ministry's point of view.

He also said that the report was used by opposition for "personal attacks" on him.

"I had decided to respond to the allegations much earlier as media resorted to personality bashing for the last two days," he said.

He said he resisted to respond to allegations as it could lead to harming the national institutions and war against terrorism.

He said if a judge had the privilege of integrity, everyone else reserved the same right and said he would hold the current job only with integrity.

"I will challenge this report at every forum including the Supreme Court and Parliament and elaborate on the performance of the incumbent and previous regimes," he said.

He said there had been only 774 incidents of terrorism in the country during the current year as opposed to nearly 10,000 such incidents from 2007 until 2013.

Already opposition Pakistan Peoples Party demanded resignation of interior minister after the report was released.

The party also submitted a motion against him in the parliament doe discussion that the interior minister was incapable of playing a role in combating terrorism.