ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Monday said hisgovernment will push ahead with plans to seize control of charities run byan Islamist designated a terrorist by Washington, and warned the UnitedStates not to weaken Pakistan.
Abbasi brushed off U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent tweet accusingPakistan of “lies and deception” in its commitment to fighting terrorism,as he raised the prospect of charging the United States to use Pakistan’sairspace to resupply NATO troops in Afghanistan.
Under pressure from the United States and international institutions tocrack down on terrorist financing, Pakistan last month drew up secret plansfor a “takeover” of charities linked to Islamist leader Hafiz Saeed, whoWashington blames for the 2008 attacks in Mumbai that killed 166 people.
The United States has labelled the charities Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and theFalah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF) as “terrorist fronts” for Lashkar-e-Taiba(LET), or “Army of the Pure”, a group Saeed founded in 1987 and whichWashington and India accuse of carrying out the Mumbai attacks.
Saeed has repeatedly denied involvement in the Mumbai attacks and says thecharitable organisations he founded and controls have no ties withmilitants.
But both he and the organisations have been sanctioned by the UnitedNations and his freedom in Pakistan, where he holds public rallies, hasbeen a thorn in Islamabad’s relations with India and the United States.
“Yes, the government will take over the charities which are sanctioned andnot allowed to operate,” Abbasi, 59, told Reuters in an interview at theprime minister’s chamber in Pakistan’s Parliament in capital Islamabad.
Answering specific questions about the proposed takeover of JuD and FIF,Abbasi said the civilian government had the backing of the powerfulmilitary, which effectively controls Pakistan’s security and foreign policy.
“Everybody is on board, everybody is on the same page, everybody iscommitted to implementation of U.N. sanctions,” he said.
He declined to set a deadline.
JuD and FIF did not respond to Reuters requests for comment. Theorganisations have previously said they would take legal action if thegovernment tried to take them over. Saeed could not be reached for comment.
SELECTIVE ACTION
There are concerns in Pakistan that the country may face financialsanctions over accusations of selective action against Islamist militantgroups and financing.
Pakistan is a base for myriad Islamist movements, and critics accuseIslamabad of only targeting militants who attack the state while leavingunscathed those who target neighbouring Afghanistan and arch-foe India.Pakistan denies those allegations.
Abbasi said Pakistan had made progress in curbing terrorist financing aftermeetings with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an international bodythat warned Islamabad could be put on a watchlist for not doing enough tostop the practice.
“We’ve had several meetings on that, and from what I’ve seen a large partof those actions have been taken,” Abbasi said.
A U.N. Security Council team is due to visit Pakistan this month to reviewprogress against U.N.-designated “terrorist” groups, which includes LeT andothers such as the Afghan Taliban-allied Haqqani network.
Former petroleum minister Abbasi said any sanctions against Pakistan wouldbe counter-productive to the country’s own battle against Islamistmilitants, which he called “the largest war on terror in the world”.
“Any constraints put on Pakistan, actually only serve to degrade ourcapability to fight the war against terror,” he said.