Govt to continue fight against terrorism till its complete elimination: Ahsan Iqbal

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Interior Ahsan Iqbal on Monday said that concrete steps were being taken under National Action Plan (NAP) to get rid of the menace of terrorism to secure peaceful future for country’s next generations.

Replying to a point of order raised by MNA Shireen Mazari in the National Assembly regarding on-going session of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in France and its expected anti-Pakistan decisions, the minister said that Pakistan will continue its fight against terrorism and extremism.

He made it clear that it was not failure of Pakistan’s foreign policy but actually some other factors were behind this approach at FATF. However he added Pakistan’s friends were there to play their role and that there was still time as the FATF session will end on February 23.

He said that a joint resolution should be passed from the parliament to tell the members of FATF including United Kingdom and United States of America that whole Pakistani nation was united against terrorism and that no any external pressure will be accepted by this nation.

He said, “We will not allow any one to use our soil for any activity of terrorism and similarly we will not allow any one to use their soil for any terrorism activity against Pakistan.”

He said that the government of Pakistan had already taken several steps to control terrorism and in this regard Ulema’s role was very important as around 2,000 Ulema from different schools of thought had issued a decree against suicidal attack and declared it as illegal.

He said that any negative decision of FATF will harmfully affect the on-going war against terrorism. He added Pakistan was fully committed to continue its fights against terrorism and was on right path against terrorists and terrorism.

He said that the FATF had put Pakistan on white-list from grey-list in 2015 due to its efforts against terrorism.