Terrorists had thoroughly planned Quetta carnage

‘Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Sath’

KARACHI: The civil and military leadership has taken some important decisions against terrorism in the wake of the terror incident in Quetta, said Shahzeb Khanzada on Geo News programme, ‘Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Sath’, on Monday.

He said that the way the suicide bombing was carried out in Quetta shows that the terrorists had meticulously planned the carnage. First, the president of the Balochistan Bar Council was targeted, and when the lawyers arrived at the Civil Hospital in Quetta to collect the body of Anwar Kasi, the suicide bomber struck there. 

Shahzeb said that such an act of terror in Quetta is a cause of deep concern because very recently large networks of Indian and Afghan intelligence agencies have been busted in Balochistan.

He said that these terrorists are not only a threat to peace but they are also a threat to the China Pakistan Economic Corridor. Shahzeb said that the nation need not feel despondency over these acts of terror, but that we must remember that before Operation Zarb-e-Azb was launched, we used to receive news of terror acts every day, but after the operation was launched the terrorists have been targeting soft targets like schools, courts and hospitals because the terrorists have not been able to target hard targets anymore.

In a different segment of the programme, Shahzeb Khanzada said that a serious allegation has been leveled against Jehangir Tareen, a close associate of Imran Khan. He said that Jehangir Tareen has not mentioned either the offshore company or the flat in London among the details of his assets on the party’s website.

Shahzeb said that this is a challenge to Imran Khan to see if he can hold, besides Nawaz Sharif, his close associates accountable. He said that as a matter of fact, neither the PML-N nor the Tehreek-e-Insaf are serious in the accountability drive, and the word accountability is just being used for politics. The two parties are simply accusing each other in a replay of the politics of the 1990s.

Shahzeb Khanzada said that Nawaz Sharif has once again been proving that accountability is just a political weapon to him. He said that the PML-N has never been serious in accountability against corruption, and by filing a reference against Imran Khan the party has once again proved that it is not interested in accountability. 

Shazeb Khanzada said that the official news agency, APP, has run a news report, in which a political source was referred to that based on a news story published in a foreign newspaper the government is going to be filing a motion against Imran Khan.

According to the news item, a claim has been made in a British newspaper, Metro, that the British Charity Commission has started an investigation pertaining to misappropriation of funds and money-laundering against Tehreek-e-Insaf's three charity institutions.

The British newspaper has also claimed that Imran Khan's Namal University has not submitted its accounts for the year 2012 which gives birth to the suspicion that this money might have been misappropriated or subjected to money-laundering.

Shahzeb Khanzada said that Imran Khan in one of his tweets on Namal said that allegations are being leveled against charity institutions because of the media cell that Maryam Nawaz has been running from the Prime Minister's House.

Shahzeb said that Maryam Nawaz having contacted us told us that all the allegations leveled by Imran Khan are untrue, and that she has nothing to do with all these matters. Maryam also said that she usually does not respond to Imran Khan's allegations because “he tells lies every day, and that it is the people who will decide what is true and what is false”.

In a different segment of the programme, Shahzeb Khanzada said that there has not been any improvement in the condition of the Pakistanis stranded in Saudi Arabia. Although the Saudi ruler has issued instructions for the payment of the laborers dues, yet it will take some time before the matter is resolved.

In a yet different segment of the programme, Shahzeb Khanzada said that 12 ministers in the 18-member cabinet of Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah are those who had been in the cabinet of former chief minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah. People have been asking if it was just Qaim Ali Shah who was to be solely blamed for the Pakistan People's Party's record of bad governance in Sindh?

The Home Minister of Balochistan, Sarfaraz Bugti, a senior journalist of The News, Ahmed Noorani, and Geo News correspondent in London, Murtaza Ali Shah, also spoke to Shahzeb Khanzada on the programme.

Balochistan Home Minister Sarfaraz Bugti told Shahzeb Khanzada that neither Daesh nor the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan exist in Balochistan. In the previous attacks, TTP terrorists came to Balochistan from Afghanistan and here the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi provided assistance to them.

Sarfaraz Bugti said that as far as the terrorists and their facilitators are concerned there is a zero-tolerance policy against them in the province. He said that peace will be revived in the province by the government with the cooperation of the law-enforcement agencies.

Sarfaraz Bugti said planning for all the previous three attacks in Balochistan was done by RAW and the NDS in Afghanistan in which the suicide bombers were provided by the TTP while the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi helped them in Balochistan. He said that in the light of these facts, the Balochistan chief minister has held RAW responsible for the Quetta suicide bombing incident.

Senior journalist of The News, Ahmed Noorani, said on the programme that Jehangir Tareen in an interview with The News had acknowledged that his children have properties which are looked after by an offshore company. Jehangir Tareen has never declared in Pakistan his offshore company, which according to some past statements of his leader, Imran Khan, is a crime.

Ahmed Noorani said that Jehangir Tareen’s stance over the matter is that his children are independent, and that he only declared details about their assets voluntarily. Ahmed Noorani said Jehangir Tareen thinks such divulgence is enough as per the law.

Geo News correspondent in London, Murtaza Ali Shah, said on the programme that the British Charity Commission has confirmed that the 2012 accounts of Namal University have not been received by the Charity Commission yet.

Murtaza Ali Shah said that the Charity Commission has confirmed that it conducted an investigation regarding Imran Khan Relief Fund and the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital in 2015. The charity had received some complaints alleging that the funds that Imran Khan gets in Britain are used for political purposes.

Murtaza Ali Shah said that according to the Charity Commission they did not get any evidence in this connection, and, therefore, the investigations were closed.