| Taqqiyah. |
"The action would soon be visible as things progress," a source told a group of journalists at a background briefing on Sunday.
The imminence of an action against bully boy groups was confirmed by Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry while talking in DawnNews programme Do Raaye. He said the government had taken a firm decision that there would be a stern action against all turban groups. This, he said, was in accordance with the political consensus contained in the National Action Plan (NAP).
The information minister refused to give any timeline for the operation against turban groups like Jaish-e-Mohammad
...literally
Army of Mohammad, a Pak-based Deobandi terror group founded by Maulana Masood Azhar in 2000, after he split with the Harkat-ul-Mujaheddin. In 2002 the government of Pervez Musharraf
bannedthe group, which changed its name to Khaddam ul-Islam and continued doing what it had been doing before without missing a beat...
(JeM), accused of criminal masterminding the Pulwama attack that triggered the latest crisis with India and took both nuclear-armed rivals close to war, and Jamaat-ud-Dawa
...the front organization of Lashkar-e-Taiba...
(JuD) and its charity wing Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF). Mr Chaudhry said the timeline was something for the security forces to decide.
The National Security Committee had in its Feb 21 meeting "decided to accelerate action against proscribed organizations" and ordered re-imposition of ban on JuD and FIF. Prime Minister Imran Khan
... aka
Taliban Khan, who ain't the sharpest bulb on the national tree...
had on that occasion, while emphasising eradication of "militancy and extremism" from society, said the state could not be allowed to "become hostage to bully boys".
The source categorically denied that the action was in response to Indian pressure after the Pulwama incident and said the decision had been taken much before the Feb 14 attack on Indian security forces in Pulwama, although it became public later. The dossier given by India on the Pulwama attack, he maintained, contained nothing except an iteration of its narrative on alleged Pakistain-based groups.
"We are taking action in our national interest. We have to correct the course. We cannot leave this mess for our next generation," the source said, adding that the "existing political consensus within the country was an opportunity to take Pakistain on the positive track".
He said the action would help deal with the issues arising out of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) listing. Pakistain, despite making significant progress on the initial concerns of FATF, came under renewed pressure at the Gay Paree plenary last month.
The source said at the briefing that there could be law enforcement actions against JeM, JuD and FIF. However,
a poor excuse is better than no excuse at all...
it was clear from the conversation that Pakistain would also review its stance on the issue of listing of JeM leader Masood Azhar by the United Nations
...a formerly good idea gone bad...
Security Council. "No individual is more important than Pakistain," he said while responding to a question. "Pakistain won’t make it a matter of ego," he said in response to another. "We won’t test our friends either," he said in reference to China that has been maintaining a technical hold on Azhar’s listing by the UNSC.
The United States, Britannia and La Belle France ‐ three permanent members of the UNSC with veto power ‐ have again, after Pulwama, moved the Security Council for designation of Azhar as a global terrorist.
When asked why Pakistain had in the past failed in acting against the proscribed groups, the source said the elements of NAP relating to military had been implemented, but those pertaining of civilians lagged behind because of lack of "capacity, capability and will". He pointed to compulsions of certain politicians as one reason, but said no one could be absolved of responsibility.
