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Pakistan is isolated because it gives freedom to non-state actors: PPP leader
Pakistan is isolated because it gives “freedom to non-state actors” who may have had a hand in the Uri attack, a senior Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader told a special joint session of Parliament convened to discuss tensions with India.
Pakistan is isolated because it gives “freedom to non-state actors” who may have had a hand in the Uri attack, a senior Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader told a special joint session of Parliament convened to discuss tensions with India.
Former interior minister Aitzaz Ahsan told the Parliament on Thursday, “The government has been completely unsuccessful in imposing restrictions on non-state actors according to the National Action Plan (NAP).”
He criticised the cabinet’s denial of Pakistani involvement in the terror attack on an Indian Army camp at Uri in Kashmir that killed 19 soldiers. “Saying we believe Pakistan has no hand in the Uri attack is not a categorical denial, he said.
This implied that Pakistan did not “know if our non-state actors are behind it”, Ahsan said, according to the website of Dawn newspaper.
“When you cannot completely implement NAP and then something like this happens, the blame will fall on Pakistan and we will be isolated. Then Bangladesh and Afghanistan will not speak to you, and Bhutan and Nepal will begin supporting India,” he said.
“You have isolated Pakistan,” said Ahsan, who is considered one of Pakistan’s leading lawyers.
Ahsan, who also served as law minister, held Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif responsible for Pakistan’s diplomatic isolation as the premier also holds the foreign affairs portfolio. “Pakistan’s isolation is Nawaz Sharif’s personal failure,” he said.
“Nawaz Sharif did not anticipate the Uri attack. Our defence minister said that perhaps India did it themselves to divert attention away from Kashmir…I agree, it is possible, but then why is it Pakistan which is isolated now? It is because you have given freedom to non-state actors.”
He implied that non-state actors continue organising protests and rallies and making speeches in Islamabad, Lahore, Faisalabad and Karachi. “I don’t want instability in any country, as the blame of that will then fall on us because of these non-state actors,” he said.
Ahsan asked the government to fight the India Waters Treaty case and present Pakistan’s stance on Kashmir. “We are with you,” he said, reiterating the PPP’s stance of unity with the government on Kashmir.
