Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Upper House of Parliament on Wednesday warned against Pakistan being put on the watchlist as a country deemed non-compliant with terror financing regulations of the UN and called for sincerity of purpose in matching the promises with the ground reality.

Senator Farhatullah Babar gave these warning in Senate while speaking over a matter of public importance. He said that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) will meet in Paris early next week that would consider Pakistan’s compliance status with international regulations to choke financing infrastructure of terror organizations. In addition, it would also consider a motion to place Pakistan on the terror financing watchlist already moved by the US and some other European countries, he maintained.

Expressing skepticism, the PPP senator said that four days ago the president of Pakistan had promulgated an ordinance amending the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 so as to bring individuals and organisations listed by the UN Security Council in its ambit. It was followed by cabinet approval to the new Anti-Terrorism (Freezing and Seizure) Rules 2018, he said. Though these were positive moves, he said, however the fact that the ordinance had not been brought before the parliament as required under the constitution and the law has raised some serious doubts about the intent of the move.

Babar said that in the past also, the governments had been making promises but never followed up on them prompting allegations of huge gap between pledges made and the ground reality. “We must be sincere in honouring the pledges we made. We must realize that situation has changed now and it is no longer possible to sidestep delivering on promises,” he said.

Chairman Raza Rabbani also deplored that the ordinance issued by the president had not been placed before the parliament even as it was in session. He also directed that the minister concerned should come and take Senate into confidence over FATF’s upcoming meeting.

Giving statement in Senate, Defence Minister Khurram Dastgir Khan said that Pakistan would pay India in its own coin in case of any misadventure. He said that any Indian aggression, strategic miscalculation or misadventure regardless of its scale, mode, or location would not go unpunished and shall be met with an equal and proportionate response.

The minister said instead of a knee-jerk reaction of blaming Pakistan without substantiation, India must answer for state-sponsored espionage against Pakistan. He said living evidence in person of Kulbhushan Jadhav was in front of the world.

The minister said India was destabilising the regional peace in word and deed through irresponsible statements on nuclear deterrent and through its bloody, five-fold escalation in 2017 of attacks on unarmed civilians on the line of control and the working boundary.

Turning to US fall in Afghanistan, the minister said that Washington was not winning war in Afghanistan despite spending billions of dollars and sacrificing thousands of American lives. He said Pakistan should not be made a scapegoat for this failure. He said Pakistan had suffered a loss of billions of dollars and rendered sacrifices of human lives in this war against terrorism. He stressed the need for a comprehensive dialogue between Pakistan and the United States to move forward on all issues.

Dastgir said sustainable peace in a democratic Afghanistan was Pakistan’s top objective. He said that Afghan war must not be fought on Pakistan’s soil.

Commenting on Pak-Afghan relations, the minister said that Pakistan sees Afghanistan as a sovereign neighbour “with whom we share historical bonds of culture, trade and religion.” He said that Pakistan wanted a peaceful, stable, prosperous and democratic Afghanistan.

Published in Daily Times, February 15^th 2018.