India using terror as state policy instrument: Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Friday said India was a major source of terrorism in the region and using it as an instrument of state policy. These views were expressed by the Foreign Office spokesman during the weekly media briefing when asked to comment on India’s consistent support to TTP and BLA, which recently saw Colonel Laiq being martyred by terrorists in Balochistan.

“This is a well-known fact and we have been saying it for a long time that the major source of terrorism in this region is our eastern neighborhood and they continue to use terrorism as an instrument of state policy and mostly directed against Pakistan. We have also reported recent incidents to the international community as under the guise of its presence in Afghanistan, India has been exploiting the situation to the detriment of Pakistan’s security by financing, aiding and abetting, planning and executing terrorist and subversive activities in Pakistan,” he added.

Pakistan, he maintained, has approached the international community and it continues to sensitise its friends about it that this behaviour is totally counterproductive and India must do some introspection. “They continue to use the pretext that they cannot talk to Pakistan; they go around saying they have concerns about the issue of terrorism, and level baseless allegations against Pakistan. I think to the contrary, we have bigger concerns with regard to India’s terrorist activities directed against Pakistan and whenever there is a dialogue, we will raise these issues, specifically and strongly and it is not that we shy away from dialogue, because we think and it is the factual situation that it is India, which is responsible for this kind of environment in our neighbourhood, and we would very much take it up,” he elaborated.

As far as Afghanistan is concerned, he added, we have always raised the issue with successive governments there, and will continue to do that with the current administration as well, he explained.

The Foreign Office spokesperson said Pakistan did not agree with the recently released WEF Gender Gap Report 2022, which finds Pakistan as the second worst country in the world in terms of gender parity, and called for the WEF to engage with states from different regions to understand and showcase diversity of religious, historical, developmental and cultural backgrounds, and improve its reporting methodology on the basis of the feedback. “We consider the report has flaws with respect to its reporting methodology including data collection, data interpretation, indicator selection, definitions, and standards, etc”, he noted.

He said that Pakistan, in fact, had made a steady progress in strengthening legal and administrative mechanisms for the promotion and protection of rights of women and girls. “Efforts are being made for the social, economic and political empowerment of women and gender equality in line with SDG 5. Some of the measures include the passage of laws; gender responsive policies and budgeting; gender-sensitive social protection social safety-net (BISP); introduction of 30pc reserved seats for women representatives at all three tiers of local government; reservation of 60 seats in the National Assembly as well as in Senate and Provincial Assemblies; and 10pc reserved quota for employment for women in the Central Superior Services,” he added.

Commenting on the US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report in which Pakistan has been place in Tier 2 category instead of Tier 2 Watch List, the spokesman welcomed it. “We welcome the developments. Pakistan was also not listed in Child Soldiers Prevention Act CSPA designation. We consider it a positive step taken by the US to remove Pakistan from the list, as it represents the ground realities and also acknowledges the efforts of Pakistan in this domain”, he added.

In this regard, he added, the report recognises Pakistan’s documented efforts to combat trafficking and labour-related issues. “And I think it will lead to a better understanding of issues and enhance mutual trust between our two countries,” he said and pointed out that the report had also noted Pakistan’s overall increasing efforts on its anti-trafficking capacity, including increasing investigations, prosecutions and convictions.

“We would continue to engage with all partners and stakeholders, both nationally and internationally to strengthen our efforts to combat trafficking in persons and enhance the child rights agenda globally,” he maintained.

To a query on the ongoing visit of SAPM Tariq Fatemi to Washington in which he also met with Deputy Secretary of State Wendy R. Sherman, the spokesman said, “I don’t have much to share. It seems there is too much reading into it, which I understand is a visit in private capacity”.

When asked about statements from senior members of the PTI about a cipher that the former Pakistan ambassador to the US had sent to the Foreign Office and whether the continuation of the controversy would adversely affect Pakistan’s foreign policy, the spokesman clarified that the assumptions being made and some of the statements that had been made were not true. Citing accusations from the PTI that the cipher had not been shared with the former Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, he said, “It is baseless. As we said, such a question does not arise. Foreign Office is a professional state institution, and we work according to professional norms and ethos, and I think it was appropriate for us to make the clarification.”

Asked why the allegations continued, he replied, “I think this question better be addressed to those who are making statements and continue to bring up such issues. This matter was responded to and clarified previously and while we don’t think that there was a need for further clarification, the statement that we issued recently, we felt was necessary because somehow the issue was being raised again.”

He pointed out that once the National Security Committee had met twice and pronounced on the issue, the Foreign Office thought that it was time to move on and engage in constructive diplomacy and continue to do its work, that they are supposed to do. “I think as far as the foreign ministry and our missions are concerned, we are doing exactly just that. So, we are shouldering our responsibility and I can say that there is this expectation that this responsibility towards the national interest of Pakistan is shared by all concerned,” he added.