Pakistan interior minister Brigadier (retired) Ijaz Shah seems to be in the eye of a storm after he created more trouble internally than externally in the last few months, raising questions about the tenability of his continuation in Imran Khan's cabinet. The Indian home ministry first stole the thunder from Shah by its successful abrogation of Article 370 in Kashmir last year. In the internal security set up of the neighbouring countries, all eyes were on the Pakistani interior ministry and its spy agencies on the next move.
It was Shah who first admitted that Pakistan had failed to gather international support against India's move to abrogate Article 370. Pakistan's interior ministry failed to counter the successful deployment of troops in Kashmir to avoid any untoward incident prompting the interior minister to admit that the world believed Delhi more than Islamabad on the issue.
In the following months, Ijaz Shah blamed India for “manipulating” the Financial Action Task Force against Pakistan. Once again, Shah was shouldering the responsibility of taking sufficient steps to fulfill the FATF conditions to take Pakistan off the grey list. Despite assurances to Prime Minister Imran Khan that Pakistan has fulfilled the FATF conditions, Shah failed to convince the global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog which decided to keep Pakistan on the grey list in its meeting held in October.
Security sources said the rising COVID-19 cases in Pakistan and inept handling of the situation are also something that is being attributed to the failure of the interior ministry which was responsible for managing the COVID-19 emergency response in that country.
Recently, Shah thanked China for its support to Pakistan in the fight against COVID-19 and assured that foolproof steps have been taken for ensuring the security of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. Security officials in New Delhi are viewing it as a desperate attempt by Shah to stay relevant and justify his presence in the interior ministry. Notably, Shah's appointment as minister of interior by Imran Khan was resisted strongly by Army Chief Gen Qamar Bajwa.
The latest stand off came after Shah triggered a full blown controversy with the infamous Karachi fiasco. The interior ministry was blamed for orchestrating the arrest of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's son-in-law Captain Safdar Awan (retired) and kidnapping of IG of Sindh police, Inspector General Mushtaq Mahar.
A man known for his hardline stand and proficiency in intelligence tactics, Ijaz Shah, a former director of intelligence bureau, was suddenly seen as the spy who triggered one of the rare occasions in Pakistan when the military was challenged by another uniformed force. Army Chief Gen Bajwa had to step in to quell the upheavals but the episode has left the spies across borders guessing if the battle lines had finally been drawn with the powerful veteran Shah, aided by his director IB Dr Suleman Khan on one side and Gen Bajwa on the other.
However, what has not gone unnoticed is the widening of cracks between the ruling dispensation and the military establishment which has been unhappy with Imran Khan government.
