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Interior minister says Pakistan not friends with terror groups
DOHA: Minister for Interior Affairs Ahsan Iqbal has said that there are no more safe havens of militants in Pakistan.
“We have paid a heavy price. More than 6,000 security personnel have laid down their lives. Over 70,000 people have become a victim, either they died or were injured in terrorism-related incidents,” he said in an interview with Al Jazeera.
“A country that has paid such a heavy price can never be friends with any terror groups. We want to make Pakistan a peaceful country,” he said. He admitted that the sudden resignation of Pakistan Muslim League-N President Nawaz Sharif as prime minister was a setback for the democratic process and for the country.
“Nawaz Sharif enjoys big stature. He has experience. Pakistan needs very experienced leadership to face some of the complex security challenges that confront us domestically and in the region,” Ahsan said. Still, he thinks Pakistan moved on from the crisis swiftly.
“I think the democratic process is well-entrenched. As a result, what the people saw is that within three days a new prime minister was elected, a new cabinet was sworn in and the country is moving forward.” Part of the country’s plan to move forward is a new economic relationship with China that could change the power dynamics in the region, he added.
The minister has been at the forefront of implementing the $56 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which is one of the most important parts of China’s One Belt One Road vision. According to him, Pakistan and China enjoy a very close relationship based on mutual trust. So he said he was not concerned about China’s growing influence in Pakistan.
“If you look at history, in the last 3,000 or 4,000 years, I’ve not come across a single instance of Chinese imperialism… China has never made colonies, so it’s not part of their DNA,” he said. “All these projects have a win-win approach. We get the much-needed foreign investment that Pakistan very desperately needs,” he said.
“We get the much-needed energy that we desperately need to revive our economy. We get much-needed modern infrastructure that we need to have a competitive economy for efficient movement of goods through road and rail networks. And China gets access. So it’s a win-win situation,” he said.
