ISLAMABAD - Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan Monday said the visa restrictions imposed by the United States will not affect terrorists but the victims of terrorism.
Talking to reporters after inaugurating the Executive Passport Office in Islamabad, he termed it was a very important issue and said: "It is not only a matter of issuing visas to a country. In my personal opinion the move will not affect terrorists, however increase miseries of victims of terrorism."
Referring to a security summit in Washington, in Feb 2015, hosted by the then US president Barak Obama and attended by foreign ministers of more than 60 countries, he recalled that the summit had stressed need of international unity and consensus if the global community needs to get rid of the gangrene of terrorism.
"It was also stated that to achieve this goal, some countries would have to come out of the propaganda of Islamophobia," he said.
Nisar added that he had made it clear that correlating Islam with terrorism was tantamount to negating the entire struggle against terrorism.
"The US move would harm global unity against terrorism and terrorists would be beneficiary of pointing fingers to Islam and Muslims."
"If one likes or not but more than one and half billions of populace in the world are Muslims and it few hundreds of them are involve in terrorism, it would not be wise to put blame of their misdeeds to more than 1.5 billion Muslims.
He said that mostly Muslims have been targeted by terrorism and still they are labelled as terrorists.
The country’s top security czar also clarified that the PML-N-led government has never endorsed or used disappearances as unofficial state policy.
“The government does not own the policy of disappearances, nor has it incited such a move or implemented it during the last three-and-half years of its tenure,” Nisar said.
Nisar went on to say that he sent a police officer to the recovered professor (Salman Haider) house and inquired after his health. “He (Haider) did not agree to register a report (with the police) but appreciated the interior ministry’s efforts to recover him.”
A lot of work was done (to recover the missing social media activists) during the last two to three weeks.
The five men — who campaigned for human rights and religious freedom — went missing from various cities between January 4 and 7, triggering nationwide protests. No group has claimed responsibility.
Meanwhile, two Pakistani bloggers who vanished earlier this month have left the country fearing for their safety, relatives told AFP on Monday, following a virulent media campaign painting them as blasphemers.
They were among five men who went missing from various cities in Pakistan. Four of the five have been freed, their families said. They would not comment on where the men had been held.
Liaqat Ali Goraya, the father of blogger Waqas Goraya, confirmed to AFP that his son was safe and had left the country. But his nephew Abdur Rahman Cheema, whose disappearance at the same time as his son was not reported to the media, was still missing.
"Waqas has gone, we've sent him abroad," said his father, declining to comment on who had held him. Before he went missing, Goraya was based in The Netherlands and had returned to Pakistan for a family wedding.
A source close to the family of blogger Asim Saeed confirmed he too had left the country. His father, Ghulam Haider Akbar, told AFP the family had received death threats purporting to come from the anti-Shiite Laskhar-e-Jhangvi group. "You who have blasphemed deserve death. You are out of Islam and should be ready for a painful punishment, which will be remembered by your generations to come," a text message said, according to Akbar.
A relative of a third blogger, who asked to remain anonymous, said both he and his family had left their home town and were in hiding. "We are going to think about it for a few days and assess the situation. If it seems ok, we'll return, else we'll try to go abroad," the relative said.
Zeeshan Haider said his brother, poet and activist Salman Haider, was "fine and safe". The whereabouts of the fifth man remain unknown.
Nisar also announced that as many as 14 passport executive centres will be established across the country, saying no district will be without a passport office by March this year. Nisar further said that National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) had been given the task to establish executive passport offices a year ago.
“We will also set up three mega centres in Quetta, Gujranwala and other cities while more work will be done in this regard by next year.”
These centres, Nisar said, will have qualified staff who will provide quality services to the applicants.