ISLAMABAD, January 15: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) deplores and condemns the distinction between sectarian and non-sectarian militant outfits reiterated yet again by the interior minister as deeply flawed, grievously offensive and extremely dangerous for the state and society.
Talking to media in Kallar Syedan on Saturday the Interior Minister not only defended his previous remarks in the Senate but also defended the Defence of Pakistan Council (DPC) on the ground that it was not a proscribed organization claiming also that its leaders had met the former President in Presidency.
In a statement Sunday, PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar said that the Minister seems unaware that the DPC has been publicly calling for armed jehad in a neighboring country and has been allowing its platform to be used by banned outfits. Does the Minister wish to assert that proscribed organizations can freely assemble under the banner of DPC because the latter is not proscribed, he asked? Or does he wish to assert that calling for armed jehad in a neighboring country by any outfit is state policy?
It is atrocious to allege that the former President had soft corner for the DPC,he said.
When the DPC invited through late General Hameed Gul the PPP for participation in a moot ostensibly for a noble cause the then President rejected the suggestion citing huge differences in their world views and that the PPP cannot sit at the same podium with the DPC, Senator Farhatullah Babar said.
To assert that banned sectarian outfits cannot be equated with banned terrorist groups betrays ignorance of the violence created by the takfeeri rhetoric of the sectarian groups, he said.
It only shows that two years down the line of fight against militancy the supposed leader of this fight is not even aware of who the real enemies of state and society areâ, he said.
How can the nation hope to win the fight to retrieve the ideological, cultural and social space increasingly captured by these enemies of the state and society, he asked?
The Minister ought to know that militancy in Pakistan is fundamentally sectarian in nature. By operating freely within the society they are more dangerous than Al Qaeda and Daesh who need cover for operations.
Furthermore the militant terrorist organizations be it the Al Qaeda or Taliban or Daesh have sectarian agendas and use sectarian outfits as strategic partners.
An interior Minister who is blind to this fundamental reality cannot achieve anything except to unwittingly place the country in the path of grave danger and harm, he said. -NNI
