ISLAMABAD: Lawmakers from both treasury and opposition benches in the National Assembly on Thursday termed the US efforts to place Pakistan on the watchlist of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) a failure of the government and a success of the Indian narrative against Pakistan.
A meeting of the FATF member states is due on February 18 in Paris.
On a point of order, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Shireen Mazari said it was the failure of Pakistan’s foreign policy that a resolution was being moved against Pakistan.
“The government has no foreign policy and its entire focus has been on ‘mujhay kion nikala’. Pakistan has failed in its diplomacy and it cannot present a counter narrative against India,” she said.
Naveed Qamar from Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) demanded that the foreign or interior minister brief the assembly on the issue on Friday (today).
Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination Riaz Hussain Peerzada told the house that both foreign and the interior ministers were on foreign tours and the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Shaikh Aftab Ahmad would brief the house. Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) chief Mehmood Khan Achakzai said that no government minister had yet bothered to tell the people of Pakistan about this issue. “It is the right of the House that the Foreign Office tells it what is happening,” he stated.
Published in Daily Times, February 16th 2018.
