Dossiers on India have no ‘material evidence’,
ISLAMABAD: The
Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs was told on Thursday that dossiers
given to the United States and United Nations Secretary General on India’s
alleged involvement in terrorism in Pakistan did not contain ‘material
evidence’.
Testifying before
the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, which met with Senator Nuzhat Sadiq in
the chair, Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said the dossiers instead
contained the “pattern and narrative” of Indian involvement.
“The dossiers have
been meticulously prepared, but material evidence cannot be shared for the sake
of protecting the sources,” he said, adding that the proofs could have only
been provided to others in the narrative shape.
Mr Aziz had first
talked about the three dossiers ahead of Pak-India National Security Advisers
meeting, which was later cancelled. His statement led to a media hype that the
government after decades of complaining about Indian role in terrorism in the
country was finally readying to present credible evidence to the world.
Sartaj tells Senate committee
dossiers given to US, UN contain ‘pattern and narrative’
Following the cancellation of the
bilateral NSA talks, the dossiers were given to UN Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon by Pakistan’s Permanent Representative in the UN, Dr Maleeha Lodhi.
The same were also shared by Mr Aziz with US Secretary of State John Kerry
during Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s visit to Washington last month.
The dossiers,
according to previous official statements, contained proofs about Indian
involvement in Balochistan, Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and
Karachi
While talking to
media after the US visit, Mr Aziz had said that the dossiers would help build a
narrative about India’s patronage of subversive activities in Pakistan.
Foreign Secretary
Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry told the committee that the contents of the dossiers could
be shared with the members of the panel in an ‘in-camera’ session due to `the
sensitivity of the matter’.
CPEC: Mr Chaudhry
struggled to explain the omission of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)
from the joint statement issued after the meeting of Prime Minister Nawaz
Sharif with President Obama in Washington on Oct 22.
Senator Mushahid
Hussain Sayed had pointed out that while the joint statement welcomed regional
connectivity projects and named Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade
Agreement, the Central Asia South Asia Electricity Transmission and Trade
Project (CASA-1000) electricity corridor, the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India
(TAPI) natural gas pipeline project, it curiously remained silent on CPEC.
Mr Chaudhry
clarified that it was President Obama, who praised those projects and the same
was noted in the joint statement.
He further said
that the Pakistani side had briefed the Obama administration about CPEC and
apparently they had no objection to it.
BANNED GROUPS: The foreign
secretary disclosed that Falah-i-Insaniyat Foundation (FIF), a charity linked
to Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD), was not among the organisations placed under
observation.
FIF as per some of
the earlier government statements was under watch.
It was not clear if
the foreign secretary’s statement denoted a change in FIF’s status or he simply
clarified the misperception that FIF was on the watch list.
UN listed FIF as a
terrorist organisation in 2012 under UNSC Resolution 1267 and 1989.
JuD was meanwhile
among the organisations whose activities were being supervised, Mr Chaudhry
said.
Another related
group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, he said, was a banned entity.
Published in Dawn,
November 20th, 2015
http://www.dawn.com/news/1220957/dossiers-on-india-have-no-material-evidence
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