Former Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Friday strongly reacted to his former cabinet colleague, Pervez Rashid's statement, asking him to advise the government to make the Dawn leaks inquiry report public should he considers himself an "innocent." In a statement, released through his spokesperson, Nisar posed a question as to why some people have put the entire burden of the [government] mistakes on interior ministry and the establishment.
"The target of these people is only interior ministry and the former interior minister. They should have explained as to what kind of help they were expecting from the ministry of interior for hiding their deeds," Nisar's spokesperson asked.
He further stated "the fact is that only one member out of the six members of the committee which gave decision against them in the Dawn leaks inquiry report was from interior ministry while the rest were under the federal and provincial governments. "If they are such innocent, they should advise the government to make the Dawn leaks inquiry report public so that everything is clarified before the nation," he suggested.
According to his spokesperson, the former interior minister further said that they should also have the moral courage to give a clear explanation about the 'conspiracy.' Earlier, the former minister for information and broadcasting Pervez Rashid told a private TV channel that he resigned during the Dawn Leaks controversy "to save democracy." He said that he sacrificed for strengthening democracy in the country.
Rashid also maintained that former president General Pervez Musharraf (rtd.) was not sent abroad by the PML-N government and that "the government could not stop him [Musharraf] from doing so. "Other institutions did not cooperate with us in stopping Musharraf from leaving the country," he said, adding that: "Musharraf himself said that someone helped him to travel abroad." He said Pervez Musharraf's ghost conspired against Nawaz-led government. "There is a ghost, the ghost of Musharraf's legacy, it is present in political parties, political minds, and the institutions of the country," he said.
The former information minister further said a Joint Investigation Team was formed to probe Panama Leaks despite the fact that country had an interior ministry and WhatsApp messages were also sent.