Pakistan

Hafiz Saeed

Pakistan's foreign policy

2008 Mumbai carnage

diplomatically isolated

Rift grows between govt and army

over action on terrorists

Voices in Pak criticise state support to terror

ISLAMABAD: AMuslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) lawmaker has called for action against Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chiefamid a growing chorus for action against terror groups in Pakistan.Rana Muhammad Afzal, a PML-N lawmaker, on Thursday questioned the government's failure to act against Saeed, the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba and the head of its frontal charity Jamaat-ud-Dawa."Which egg is Hafiz Saeed laying for us that we are nurturing him," Afzal said in a meeting of the standing committee on foreign affairs, according to the BBC Urdu.Afzal, a member of the parliamentary panel, questioned the efficacy ofand said it had become such that "we have not been able to get rid of Hafiz Saeed so far".Sayeed, one the most wanted terrorists in India, has been blamed for masterminding terror attacks in Kashmir and other parts of India including thethat killed 166 people.The lawmaker said New Delhi had created such a worldwide impression about the terrorist leader "that during the meetings on Kashmir, foreign delegates mention Hafiz Saeed as the bone of contention between Pakistan and India".He said the country needed to be freed of such elements that have "led the world to start isolating us and trying to declare (Pakistan) a terrorist state".He recalled a trip to France where he had gone on a diplomatic mission to make Paris aware about alleged atrocities committed by Indian security forces in Jammu and Kashmir.But Saeed was "brought up time and again" during his meetings in France, Afzal said.He questioned whether Saeed was good or bad for the Kashmir cause and said that banned terror outfits, like the Lashkar and Jaish-e-Mohammed, were a source of embarrassment for Pakistan.Opposition Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Aitzaz Ahsan told a joint session of Parliament that the country wasbecause 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 (NPA)," the Dawn newspaper quoted Ahsan as saying.He implied that such elements continued to hold protests and rallies and give speeches in places such as Islamabad, Lahore, Faisalabad and Karachi."I don't want instability in any country, as the blame of that will then fall on us because of these non-state actors," he said.He said the failure to curb terrorists would isolate Pakistan. "Then Bangladesh and Afghanistan will not speak to you, and Bhutan and Nepal will begin supporting India.""You have isolated Pakistan," he said, adding Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was responsible for Pakistan's diplomatic isolation as he was also the Foreign Minister.A report in newspaper Dawn on Thursday suggesting that the Pakistan military has been asked not to "interfere" in action against militant groups considered "off limits" gave rise to heated speculation of a rift between the Nawaz Sharif government and the army brass even though the account was forcefully denied.In its report, Dawn said a meeting of civilian leaders, including PM Nawaz Sharif and the ISI chief Rizwan Akhtar, on Monday saw foreign secretary Aizaz Chaudhry bluntly say that Pakistan faced diplomatic isolation and was under pressure to act against Jaish-e-Mohammed and the Haqqani network, and move forward on the Pathankot investigation.The development seemed an attempt by Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to flex muscles against the army but the denial soon after dampened such expectations. The initial denial referred to "half truth" which was revised to "fabrication", and the addition of a paragraph on the role of the army and ISI working against terrorists of "all hues" made it clear that Sharif had backtracked. The PM's office said the report was misleading and an amalgam of "fiction and fabrication".