Daily Times

Lahore: Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal on Saturday called upon Norwegian authorities to support Pakistan at the upcoming meeting of the Financial Action Task Force in Paris.

Speaking at an event during his one-day visit to the country, Iqbal said any move to place Pakistan in the ‘grey list’ by the international community would be counter-productive, adding that it would undermine the extensive work Pakistan had carried out under the National Action Plan against terrorism.

Earlier, he interacted with Pakistani-Norwegians at the event organised by the Pakistan Embassy in Oslo.

The minister said Pakistan was ranked among the fastest emerging economies in Asia. “The country has become one of the top five economies that have shown highest growth rate in the last five years,” he said, adding that major infrastructure projects related to CPEC were under implementation in the country.

Speaking to the media in Lahore before his departure for Norway, Iqbal had said that the bid to place Pakistan on a global terrorist-financing watchlist was an act motivated by global politics.

“The West wants to pressurise Pakistan to achieve certain objectives, because of which it is pushing to place the country on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) watch list,” he said.

The United States had earlier this month put forward a motion to place Pakistan on the FATF watchlist. The FATF is an intergovernmental body based in Paris that sets global standards for fighting illicit finance.

Separately, speaking at an event in Lahore, Iqbal commented on the ongoing war of words between the apex judiciary and the ruling PML-N leadership.

He said that criticism of court judgements was a constitutional and a legal right of every Pakistani citizen.

The interior minister said his party had followed the verdict that disqualified Nawaz Sharif but it reserved the right to discuss the merits of the verdict.

He cited examples from the past where political actors had followed court verdicts while rejecting them at the same time.

“I was upset when Nawaz Sharif was disqualified but I was also upset on courts becoming controversial,” he said, adding that the country was currently in a take-off position but some elements were trying to spread political instability.

“Everyone must take a look at their own role and assess whether they are behind political instability.”

Iqbal also commented on latest demand by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to place Nawaz Sharif and other members of his family on Exit Control List (ECL). He said ECL must not be used as a political instrument.

Lashing out at Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan and Awami Muslim League (AML) chairman Sheikh Rashid, Iqbal said that the people of Pakistan had rejected their politics.

He said that the whole world had expressed shock over the disqualification of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Panama Papers case.

Published in Daily Times, February 18^th 2018.