Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal has said that the country has been paying from its own pocket for the war against terrorism.

He was speaking to the media at the launch ceremony of a report titled, Inclusive and Sustainable Development, on Monday.

Iqbal said that the government was diplomatically engaging different countries across the globe to impress upon them that putting Pakistan’s name on the watch list of countries funding terrorism would be counter-productive to efforts against terrorism. He said the government was raising awareness in different global capitals about the country’s efforts against terrorism.

“The move to put Pakistan on the watch list would just hurt our capability to fight terrorism. Whose interest will be served with such a measure?” he asked.

Iqbal expressed confidence that the international community would recognise Pakistan’s sacrifices in war against terror and would refrain from taking any measures that would hamper the anti-terror campaign.

The United States had earlier this month put forward a motion to place Pakistan on the Financial Action Task

Force (FATF) watch list. The FATF, an intergovernmental body based in Paris, sets global standards for fighting illicit finance. Its six-day plenary meeting is underway in Paris to discuss the safety and security of the global financial system, the matter pertaining to Pakistan’s status will also come under discussion during the session.

Responding to a question at Monday’s session, Iqbal condemned continued unprovoked firing by India on the Line of Control and said that New Delhi was resorting to such tactics in a bid to divert attention from its atrocities against people in Occupied Kashmir.

On the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) request for putting Nawaz Sharif and his family members’ names on the Exit Control List, Iqbal reiterated his earlier position that there was a procedure for putting names on the ECL, and that would be followed in this case as well.

Earlier, Iqbal said that only by strengthening democracy could sustainable socio-economic development be ensured in the country. “It was because of democracy that the country was today undertaking historic projects like the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).”

Published in Daily Times, February 20^th 2018.