India’s diplomatic effort to isolate Pakistan has exposed the cracks in Islamabad’s political establishment with a lawmaker from the ruling party questioning the government on its policy to nurture terrorists like Hafiz Saeed.
Demanding action against non-state actors, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) lawmaker Rana Muhammad Afzal today asked, “Which eggs is Hafiz Saeed laying for us that we are nurturing him?"
“Efficacy of our foreign policy speaks for itself when we couldn’t curtail Hafiz Saeed,” the lawmaker asked during a meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs held Thursday, according to a report by BBC Urdu.
Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed is also the founder of Lashkar-e-Toiba and the mastermind behind the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.
Conceding that India has built a strong case in international community against Pakistan vis-à-vis Hafiz Saeed, Rana further said that their engagements with other countries on the issue of Kashmir finds a mention of the militant as the reason behind the India-Pakistan dispute.
“India has built such a case against us about the JuD chief that during the meeting on Kashmir, foreign delegates mention him [Hafiz Saeed] as the bone of contention between Pakistan and India,” he said.
Recalling a recent trip to France, Rana said that Hafiz Saeed was brought up time and again when he tried to explain the situation in Kashmir.
Questioning whether Hafiz Saeed was good or bad for the Kashmir cause, Rana said he was a notorious character in international circles while he had rarely heard about him during his 25 years of political career.
The lawmaker said that although Pakistan government's stance on Kashmir is correct, banned outfits were a source of embarrassment for the country.
Earlier in the day, opposition Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) held Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif responsible for the country’s isolation saying he failed to properly implement the National Action Plan (NAP) to get rid of terrorism in the country.
Addressing the joint session of the parliament, PPP leader Aitzaz Ahsan said today that Pakistan is isolated because it gives freedom to non-state actors.
"The government has been completely unsuccessful in imposing restrictions on non-state actors according to the National Action Plan," he said.
He pointed out that these non-state actors were carrying out protests, rallies in Islamabad, Lahore, Faisalabad and Karachi.
