pix courtesy: nytimes.com |
Pakistan continues to play hide and seek game with the
international community as far as Mumbai terror attack mastermind and Jammat-ud-Dawah
chief Hafiz Saeed is concerned. Within a month of Counter Terrorism Department
(CTD) arresting Saeed in connection with a terrorism financing case on July 17
this year, Pakistani authorities moved swiftly to move the United Nations to
allow him to use his bank account for his family's basic monthly expenses. It
is baffling to figure out the purpose behind Pakistan writing a letter to the
United Nations Security
Council, which though approved its request as no
objections were raised by member countries by the deadline of August 15. Pakistan
seems to have scored a self goal by approaching the United Nations, which shows
its apathy for a terrorist. Does Saeed really need access to his bank account
to meet his daily expenses when he is hosted by the Pakistani authorities?
Couldn’t Pakistan bear his expenses covertly as it has been doing for the last
several decades?
pix courtesy: dw.com |
It should be recalled that the Asia Pacific Group (APG)
under the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) during its last month meeting in
Bangkok had placed Pakistan in the Enhanced Expedited Follow Up List
(Blacklist) for its failure to meet 21 of the 27 action parameters. Out of 118
UN- designated terrorists, Pakistan could show action against only five,
including Hafiz Saeed. The agency noted that no demonstrable action could be
shown against individuals like Masood Azhar, Rauf Azhar and Zakiur Rehman
Lakhvi or groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Falah-e-Insaniat,
Haqqani network or Daesh (Islamic State).
What makes Saeed such a formidable force that Pakistan wants to protect the UN-designated terrorist, who carries a $10 million American bounty on his head for terror activities. Saeed is an important asset for Pakistani establishment which uses his influence to carry out terror activities in Kashmir and elsewhere.
Last year also, Pakistan had made a mockery of its so-called
avowed commitment to the implementation of the United Nations Security Council
1267 sanctions regime on terrorists when it freed Saeed from the purported
“house arrest” with the lame excuse that the Lahore court did not merit his
detention. If that was not enough, Pakistan allowed Saeed to open the first
office of his political group Milli Muslim League (MML) in Lahore. Ironically,
according to Pakistani government records, the MML is the offshoot of the
banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and JuD.
What makes Saeed such a formidable force that Pakistan wants
to protect the UN-designated terrorist, who carries a $10 million American
bounty on his head for terror activities. Saeed is an important asset for
Pakistani establishment which uses his influence to carry out terror activities
in Kashmir and elsewhere. Whilst LeT remains banned in Pakistan, the political
arm of the group, Jamat-ud-Dawah (JuD) continues to function unhindered. LeT
has been accused of attacking military and civilian targets in India, most
notably the 2001 Indian Parliament attack, the 2008 Mumbai attacks and the 2019
Pulwama attack on armed forces. Despite the ban, Pakistan's main intelligence
agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), continues to offer LeT help and
protection. Not only the ISI, Saeed also enjoys the support of the powerful
army as well. In fact, Pakistan Army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa had come in
full support of him when he appeared before a parliament forum last year and
said that Saeed, like every other Pakistani, had the right to raise the Kashmir
issue.
Approaching the UN Security Council is nothing but a false
show by Pakistan that it has choked all funds to Saeed who desperately needed
money to meet his expenses. In the letter, Pakistan has described Saeed, a
designated global terrorist, as an assistant professor of engineering and
technology in Lahore. In its overzealousness in garnering support for Saeed,
Pakistani foreign ministry officials convincingly forgot that the establishment
had only a few months ago arrested him on charges of terror financing. The
latest development is another concrete proof of Pakistan’s deepening nexus
between the establishment and the terrorists and terrorist organizations.
Pakistan’s steadfast support to terrorists like Saeed, that
too when the FATF meet is scheduled next month, is something hard to digest.
Either it is not aware of the impending dangers or is it confident that it will
manage to extricate out of the mess. In the event of Pakistan downgraded
further and blacklisted by FATF, not only will it lose its power to approach
major international banks for loans, no country or institution will be
permitted to invest in Pakistan. Can Pakistan afford this? In the 36-member FATF,
Pakistan needs at least 15 votes to escape the humiliation and getting
blacklisted, which looks highly unlikely.
It is high time the global community sees through the
shenanigans of Pakistan whose Prime Minister Imran Khan has proudly claimed to
be hosting 30,000 to 40,000 terrorists and threatening nuclear war with India. Khan
also boasted that "40 different militant groups" were operating from
Pakistan. What more evidence does the international community need when an
elected prime minister of Pakistan himself claims that his country is the hub
of terrorists! The world’s major powers
have time and again failed to practice what they preach the so-called war against
terrorism. The problem is every country looks at terrorism through its only
prism. For example, Iran is a ‘number one nation of terror’ according to
President Donald Trump who carefully avoids a question on Pakistan as a
terrorist country. For President Trump, Pakistan can still prove its worthiness
whenever he takes a U-turn, as has been his forte, and wants to reopen talks
with the Taliban so as to pull out his forces from Afghanistan before he bids
for re-election next year.
Until and unless the world comes round the view that
terrorism offers the biggest challenge to the mankind and requires concerted
action, the war against terrorism is not going to succeed. Or one to understand
that some powerful countries don’t really want an end to terrorism so that they
can continue selling their military hardware to countries afflicted with
terrorism and make a capital out of it!