[Dawn] In his last interaction with media personnel as interior minister, Rehman Malik admitted his government's failure to restore peace in Karachi during its five-year tenure."We tried everything: phlogiston, words of power, you name it..."
However,
facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable...
he tried to give the impression that no government had ever been successful in bringing peace and rule of law in the troubled metropolis.
"It's way too much for one government to control. We were thinking about asking Zim-bob-we for help.""
"Our government brought peace across the country except Karachi...
"And Quetta... And Peshawar... And Manshera... And Bara..."
But no earlier government made any achievement in this regard," Mr Malik told journalists at the National Press Club a few hours before the dissolution of the National Assembly.
"There ain't never been nobody like us!"
He claimed that the PPP-led coalition government successfully restored peace throughout the country. "But the situation is different in Karachi as various mafias have been operating there -- while banned outfits are hell bent to destroy peace," Rehman Malik said. He, however, said that "we have been able to overcome this situation to a certain extent with limited resources."
"I mean, we've only got the entire resources of the govt at our command."
The minister also spoke about various efforts to negotiate with Taliban and reiterated the stance of the coalition government that Taliban on both sides of Pakistan-Afghan border had never been serious in the peace process.