MP says Pakistan should stop ‘double game’ in war on terrorism

ISLAMABAD: Farhatullah Babar, a lawmaker from the main opposition Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has said that the country must shun a “double game” in the war against terrorism, virtually endorsing repeated allegations by the US that Islamabad is not doing enough against groups operating from its soil.

The PPP, however, distanced itself from Babar’s remarks and insisted that they were made in a personal capacity. Babar, who served as the spokesman for late premier Benazir Bhutto and her widower Asif Ali Zardari when he was the president, made the comments at a roundtable discussion in Islamabad on the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) decision to put Pakistan on a terror financing watchlist.

Babar, who retires from the Senate or upper house of Parliament on March 11 after a six-year term, is regarded as a staunch critic of the security establishment and the policies it has pursued over the years. “These examples unfortunately have reinforced the perception that Pakistan might not be sincere in eliminating all terrorist groups,” he said on Tuesday. He questioned former Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan’s treatment as a “state guest”, especially since he had the “blood of 150 innocent children on his hands”.