J K NEWS TODAY COMMENTARY

Pakistan  has been served an ultimatum  by Financial Action Task Force ( FATF) to show tangible results in checking and curbing the terror financing to the terror groups  by February 2020 or it faces degradation from the existing “ grey”  to the “ black” in the list.

The FATF in its October 18, 2019 , note told Pakistan clearly that it has only one way to escape the worst outcome on this issue is to act fast against the sources of terror financing . This is an undeniable indictment of Pakistan, the country that claims to be fighting terrorism, and tops it with  a claim ,by saying , it has lost 72,000 people in war on terror..

Pakistan has suffered because of terrorism. It has lost its men, women and children in the terror attacks  by the terrorists who were nurtured and trained by Pakistani establishment. Pakistan establishment had trained , and armed them for bleeding India and Afghanistan . India, it has always deemed as  its enemy no .!, and this is deeply entrenched in the mind of Pakistanis . This narrative has been developed to befool the people of Pakistan on Kashmir with a  false slogan , “ Kashmir bane ga Pakistan.” ( Kashmir will become  Pakistan.”

In  Afghanistan,, Islamabad always wanted to maintain it strategic depth.

The problem with  Pakistan is that it thinks that the world is blind to its activities promoting terrorism . It plays a victim card , but how can these two perceptions be reconciled when Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan claims that Al-Qaeda, the global terror network  responsible for the 9/11 atrocities – the most horrendous terror attack on the soil of the United States of America . PM Khan is also on record to have stated the world-known fact that it created Taliban  that wreaked havoc in  Afghanistan . There can be no better proof of Pakistan’s complicity in the acts of terror at the world stage .

Imran Khan , as recently as last month had warned  India of bloodbath in Kashmir . He had instigated Kashmiri youth to pick up guns  to protest the abrogation of Article 370 that granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir . This is in violation of the international law. The Government of India had scrapped the Article 370 as per the constitutional norms. The Article was “ temporary” in the Indian constitution and the government had all the authority to remove this provision , with  a vote in the Parliament- to remove all the barriers between Jammu and Kashmir and the rest of the country. This is precisely what it did on August 5.

Pakistan should have known that Imran Khan’s utterances were provocative and encouragement to terror and violent methods. FATF must have taken that into account as well.

Time is ripe for Pakistan to stop playing hide and seek on terrorism. It should book and punish the perpetrators of the 26/11 and Pulwama terror attack of February 14 this year  to demonstrate its will to act against terrorists. These terror outfits cannot survive even for a fraction of second without the patronage of Pakistani army and ISI. Pakistan should do for its own survival and not only due to the pressure of FATF.