ISLAMABAD, Oct 18: Opposition Leader in the National Assembly and a Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) stalwart Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Saturday lashed out at the government’s policies and its “failure to provide relief and security to the masses.”

Talking to a group of reporters at Punjab House, the opposition leader regretted that instead of providing security to the life and property of the citizens, the rulers were busy in building fortress around them while putting the people at the mercy of the suicide attacks.

In an apparent move to woo the sympathies of the PML-Q, his partner party on the opposition benches, Chaudhry Nisar condemned the latest move of the Sindh government to nominate former Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and some other people in the fresh FIR of the last year attack on a Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) rally in Karachi.

“This is another unwise decision of the confused rulers and we are strongly against registration of politically-motivated cases,” the opposition leader said. On the one hand, he said, the government during the in-camera session of the parliament told them that ‘militants’ were behind all the attacks carried out against the PPP leadership and on the other it was nominating politicians in the terrorism cases.

He asked the rulers to provide a bold leadership to the nation. He said the rulers were giving preference to their political interests over the national interests. “Instead of appeasing (US President) George Bush, (Afghan President) Hamid Karzai and (Indian Prime Minister) Manmohan Singh, the rulers must take steps to get the support of the people of Pakistan,” he added.

He warned that if the government failed to formulate a consensus policy on the war on terror during the joint sitting of the parliament, it would be a disaster for the country. He also criticised some of the controversial statements given by President Asif Ali Zardari during his recent visit to the US. He particularly mentioned the statement in which Mr Zaradri declared the Kashmiri Mujahideen as terrorists. He also ridiculed the statement of Mr Zardari in which he threatened Taliban and said “we will suck oxygen from the lungs of Taliban.” He said on one the hand the parliament and Presidency were not safe from terrorist attacks and on other the president was issuing statements which were not matching the ground situation.