Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Senate Standing Committee on Interior and Narcotics Control Chairman Abdul Rehman Malik has said that terrorism is being imported to Pakistan to destabilise the country.

In an interview with Daily Times, he disagreed with the government’s claims of successfully eliminating the Islamic State (IS) group from Pakistan, saying “the IS was operating in the country to disturb law and order situation”. He said several banned organisations in FATA had announced their affiliation with the IS. The government, he said, should launch Rangers operation in south Punjab “as relief camps of terrorists were present in the area”. “It was me who first pointed out the presence of sleeper cells of banned organization such as Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Punjabi Taliban in Punjab but I had to face criticism on this issue,” he claimed.

Malik; however, hoped the terrorist organisation, whether it was IS or others, would be eliminated if the Operation Zarb-e-Azb continues successfully in tribal areas. He emphasised the need to break the “financing network of these organisations connected with neighbouring countries of India and Afghanistan”.

The senator said he had already written a letter to the government about an international conspiracy being hatched against the integrity of Pakistan. “India and Afghanistan, backed by the West, were operating to destabilise Pakistan,” he said.

He said that despite Pakistan’s innumerable sacrifices in war on terror, the United States was showing tilt towards India citing the recent ‘Logistic Exchange’ agreement between the two countries.

To a question, Malik, who has also served as interior minister, said there was a need to make a strategy to protect cyber boundaries of the country as well. “A NASA official had revealed that the department was involved in recording phone calls of military and civilian leadership of Pakistan but our government was showing mysterious silence on it,” he added.

When asked about the Panamagate scam, he said the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) wanted fair and independent investigation into the Panama leaks. He; however, said the government and opposition should jointly prepare a method for a probe into the Panama Papers revelations.

Replying to another question, he said the PPP would regain its mandate in Punjab that “was lost due to rigging in 2013 general elections”. He also urged the government to conduct census as soon as possible to ensure free and fair elections in the country. “The wrong figure of population and economic statistics could mislead the country’s experts,” he maintained.

Referring to the prime minister’s Kashmir policy, the PPP senator said those parliamentarians, who had been tasked to highlight the Kashmir cause across the world, should be given proper training in this regard.