WASHINGTON: Pakistan’s outgoing ambassador to the US, Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhryhas said that no country can accuse Pakistan of not taking action againstterrorists.
Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry in an interview to the VOA said that Pakistan is theone country in the region that has done the most against terrorism.“Al-Qaida, if you don’t hear about it today, it is because Pakistan and theUS were cooperating. Al-Qaida is the organization that caused 9/11, andtherefore we think that no country can tell us that Pakistan has not doneenough. In fact, Pakistan has done the most,” Chaudhry said.
He said that last year, while announcing his new South Asia strategy, USPresident Donald Trump put Pakistan on notice for failing to do moreagainst terror safe havens in the county.
The very first tweet this year from the US president was about Pakistan, headded.
“The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billiondollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing butlies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven tothe terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!,” Trumptweeted.
Chaudhry said the allegations that there are safe havens in Pakistan orthat the leadership of the Afghan Taliban is based there are myths.
“It is a myth to say that there are any Shuras in Pakistan, Karachi Shura,Quetta Shura and all these things,” Chaudhry said.
“We’ve said time and again that there are no safe havens in Pakistan.Forty-four percent of the territory of Afghanistan is available, accordingto US reports, and 70 percent, according to a BBC report, is available tomilitants of that huge country.”
However, General Joseph Votel, commander of the U.S. Central Command, toldmembers of the Senate Armed Services Committee in February that Pakistanhas yet to take any decisive action against the militants, including theHaqqani network.
“Pakistan is squeezing space on Haqqanis and the Taliban. Our message tothem is very clear, ‘you’re Afghans and you should give up violence and goto Afghanistan to join the political mainstream,’” Chaudhry said.
“But to hold Pakistan responsible for a lack of success in Afghanistan isnot a fair treatment,” he added.
Chaudhry asserted that following several military operations, the regionhas been cleared of militants.
“Violence and terrorism under any pretext is not acceptable. That’s whereour military forces moved into the tribal areas, especially NorthWaziristan where these people had created hideouts, safe havens, IED[improvised explosive devices] factories, training camps and whatever else,and two, three years later, we were able to clean up the whole place andsecure every inch of that territory,” he said.
Chaudhry downplayed those accusations and seemed to suggest the PTMmovement has been hijacked by outsiders.
“I think people are exaggerating because they have their own axe to grind,otherwise there are talks going on with them [PTM] by the authorities andthe matter is also in the courts,” he said.
“Within Pakistan, Pashtuns are very committed Pakistanis, and they havemade enormous contributions to the people of Pakistan,” he added.
Chaudhry said Hafiz Saeed’s case is legal and India has failed to presentevidence against him.
Pakistan’s relations with the US have deteriorated in recent years, andjust recently, relations between the two countries plummeted to a new lowwhen Washington issued a directive requiring Pakistani diplomats to seekpermission five days in advance before travelling more than 40 kilometresoutside their posts in the US
Nonetheless, Chaudhry seems optimistic about relations between the twonations.
“The point that I’m making is – it’s a resilient relationship and if it ispassing through a bad patch today, it will come right back to normal justlike it has come back in the past,” he said. – APP