The Free Press Journal

A SHAM CONVICTION IN LAHORE

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The point to keep in view is that Hafiz Saeed has not been jailed for master-minding the 2008 terror attack in Mumbai. Instead, he has been found guilty by a Lahore court of financing terror and given five-and-a-half-years in jail. The UN-designated terrorist and head of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa has a prize of $10 million on his head announced by the US Government. He was found guilty of being a part of a banned terrorist outfit and of possessing illegal property. The anti-terrorism court sentenced him and a close lieutenant to five-and-a-half-years in prison and imposed a fine Rs 15,000 on each count on Wednesday. Saeed was detained several times in the past, only to be freed each time without any charges being brought against him. This is the first time a court has convicted him, albeit on relatively minor terror finance charges rather than on perpetrati­ng the 26/11 and terror attacks against India and other targets, some in Pakistan itself. The reason for this change of heart in Islamabad is not far to seek. A crucial meeting of the Financial Action Task Force, an inter-government­al organisati­on combating money laundering and terror financing, is set to meet in Paris later in the week. It is likely to decide whether or not to retain Pakistan on the grey list which has virtually disqualifi­ed it from receiving financial aid from other countries and multilater­al bodies such as the IMF and the World Bank. Given the precarious state of Pakistan’s finances, Islamabad is desperate to be removed from the FATF grey list, though why it is not in the black list may be a more valid question. Led by the Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has done the rounds of the Washington who’s who to impress them of their good intentions with an eye on the release of fresh aid by the US and by the Fund/Bank. His Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has gone round canvassing all and sundry around the major world capitals with the same objective in view. But for the all-strings-attached Chinese billions, with which Beijing has virtually made Pakistan its prisoner, Pakistan would have been in much worse financial straits. But a relief from FATF is crucial for Pakistan to ease the grave financial stress. However, it will be a mistake to believe that Hafiz Saeed will undergo usual hardship in jail, or whether his so-called prison term will be not-so-secretly converted into house arrest. He was pampered in prison whenever he was held to appease Indian and internatio­nal anger and let out for no particular reason without any explanatio­n about the status of the charges against him sometime later. Known to be a creature of the Pak Army and its dreaded spy agency ISI, Hafiz’s services have been used to target domestic and Indian targets. His conviction and sentence on Wednesday ought not to delude anyone into believing that Pakistan has shunned terrorism as a tool of State policy. The FATF would do well to keep its eyes open to continuing Pakistani perfidy. Hafiz’s conviction is an attempt to hoodwink it into letting Pakistan off the hook.

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