Pakistan's #FATF Farce

While Pak PM #ImranKhan repeatedly talks about his firm resolve to “not allow any militant groups to operate inside Pakistan,” bt actions of his government to ensue this doesn’t inspire much confidence
@AartiTikoo @kakar_harsha @LtGenGurmit @arifaajakia

What’s most intriguing is that despite languishing in the grey list of #FATF since 2018, Islamabad still doesn’t appear to be serious about getting out of the same by overcoming shortcomings listed out by the international terror financing watchdog.

Islamabad’s claim of being a “victim of terror” is undoubtedly true, yet its army has no inhibitions in patronising terrorist groups, and this makes Pakistan both the victim and perpetrator of terrorism.
@arifaajakia

In fact, former US Present Donald Trump was spot-on when he tweeted that “The United States foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion $ in aid over last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit…They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan”

With #FATF due to review Pak’s case later ds month,Islamabad once fallen back to its puerile ways &started crying ‘wolf’ by alleging dt India drumming up anti-Pak sentiments within FATF member states- A rather poor attempt to conceal its own inability to curb terror activities

Isn’t this an unambiguous indication that Islamabad is well aware that its response to FATF action plan against terror financing is far from satisfactory?

After all, how can anyone expect FATF to believe that Lashkar-e-Taiba [LeT] ‘operations commander’ Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, [who’s one of the confirmed 2008 Mumbai attacks mastermind] is only guilty of running a dispensary in order to raise funds for terror financing?

Finding Lakhvi guilty under 3 sections of Pak’s Anti-Terrorism Act & awarding him separate 5-year jail sentences on each count may give an impression that Pakistani courts have come down very hard on him.

That Lakvi was convicted as well as sentenced in his very first court appearance on the basis of what the judge said was “sufficient evidence in the form of oral testimonies,” further bolsters this view.

It also buttresses 2018 revelation of Islamabad High Court judge, Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui dt “Today the judiciary & media have come in the control of ‘Bandookwala’ [army]. Judiciary is not independent… In diff cases, ISI forms benches of its choice to get desired results.”

Even US seems to think so, b'coz while its Bureau of South &Central Asian affairs tweeted dt it was “encouraged” by Lakhvi’s conviction,bt adding dt “his crimes far beyond Terror financing,”Washington sent out clear signal dt despite ds conviction,the ends of justice haven’t met

Will @FATFNews it really accept Islamabad’s laughable contention dt Lakhvi isn’t the ‘operations commander” of LeT, but just a simple dispensary owner whose only guilt is diversion of money earned for financing terror activities?

Terrorism bleeding d world & as such, isn’t appropriate space for playing petty politics or furthering motivated agendas. Hence,since HM chief Salahuddin himself admitted dt his minions “fighting Pak's war in Kashmir,” need to re-sensitise int'l community of grave dangers..

The world needs to be reminded that the 2002 abduction and murder of journalist Daniel Pearl could have been averted if Islamabad hadn’t provided sanctuary to its perpetrator Omar Sheikh [who ironically has recently been acquitted by the highest court in Pakistan].

Even though UNSC listed JeM as being associated with Al Qaida and Taliban in 2001, Islamabad took no action against Masood Azhar or JeM and instead got Beijing to veto international attempts to designate Azar a ‘global terrorist’.

The result was a series of major terrorist attacks- on Indian Parliament in 2001 that brought both countries to the brink, the 2016 Pathankot airbase attack and Pulwama car bomb attack of 2019.

It’s high time @FATFNews takes a far more serious view of Pakistan’s unabashed farce on terrorism issues

Since charged wth task of curbing terrorism,FATF has no choice but to impose its mandate as any compromise wud tantamount to betraying millions of faceless terror victims!