ISLAMABAD - Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), the major opposition party in the Upper House of the Parliament, taking part in the debate on Peshawar carnage proposed a six-point way forward to eliminate the monster of terrorism and militancy in the country and also demanded action against Lal Mosque cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz for not condemning the incident.
PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar while talking part in the debate on terrorist attack on a school in Peshawar proposed a six-point way forward to eliminate the monster of terrorism and militancy. “Immediately chuck out Maulana Aziz from Lal Masjid and reclaim the mosque, declare TTP as state enemy and expose and hold accountable its supporters and apologists, implement the 2013 legislation to banish the re-incarnation of banned outfits like Lashker-e-Taiba (LeT) behind the façade of humanitarian work, swiftly move for the cancellation of Lakhavi’s bail and addressing the Mumbai attack concerns, demolish the jehadi infrastructure lock stock and barrel and do not fall to the temptation of hot pursuit in Afghanistan,” he said, explaining his six points.
Senator Babar warned that if bold and imaginative measures were not taken now to reverse the TTP the future historian will, God forbids, say that Pakistan created in the name of religion was also destroyed in the name of religion.
He said that the barbaric incident in Peshawar had for the first time created genuine hopes of national unity across the political divided to fight to the finish of militants. “To honour the memory of the martyrs it was necessary to seize this momentous opportunity,” he said.
He said that if there were any doubts in the mind of anyone about the identity and agenda of the militants, these should be dispelled by the Peshawar carnage and the admission by Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). “The TTP monsters were Pakistani nationals proclaiming to be Muslims and seeking to destroy the state to install a caliphate. These barbarians are neither foreigners nor infidels and their agenda is the same as that of Boko Haram in Nigeria, Daesh in Syria and Iraq and Al Shabbab in Kenya,” he said. He said the people like Maulana Aziz who promotes militancy and violence against the state must be exposed and prosecuted. He also called for a clean break with the past and stop allowing the use of our soil for forays into other countries with a view to inflicting what is billed as ‘a thousand cuts’ for dubious strategic objectives.
“It is not possible to keep snakes in your backyard and instruct them to bite only the neighbours,” he said. “Today unfortunately we are reaping what we sowed in the past,” he said.
Warning against hot pursuit in Afghanistan, he said it would not only spoil relations with Afghanistan, which were on an upward trajectory but also gave India a justification to do the same. Referring to Sartaj Aziz’s recent remarks about sparing ‘militants not harmful to Pakistan,’ he said that although it had been denied by the advisor, it was an unwitting admission of the unacknowledged policy in the past.
He said that since the start of the operation in June there have been daily reports of dozens of militants killed but not one militant had been identified. For the sake of transparency and credibility it is important that the identity of at least some of the militants was disclosed.
Farhatullah Babar also called for the listing of seminaries that were engaged in promoting extremism and militancy and taking appropriate action against them.
Tahir Mashhadi of MQM said that though TTP had claimed responsibility of the Peshawar carnage, yet some people are reluctant to name this banned organisation. Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri of JUI-F said that such terrorism incidents were linked with the religious seminaries despite the fact that the religious parties themselves were victims to the menace. He said that his party chief had been targeted many times.
The House also passed the unanimous resolution condemning the killing of former senator and JUI-F leader Dr Khalid Somroo in Sindh that was moved by PPP lawmaker Dr Qayyum Somroo.