ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Wednesday said that he had issued a directive that no foreigner should be given a house without prior permission from the area police and district administration.
The security czar was responding to a question that foreigners, especially American nationals, had hired 200 houses in Islamabad and that even Chinese ambassador in Islamabad had shown his concern over the situation.
In a panel interview with The News and daily Jang, Rehman Malik said it came to his notice about one year back that Afghan and other foreigners were hiring houses in different residential sectors of the capital. He said that the directive still held the field and that he has asked the administration to hold an inquiry on the issue.
To a question, he said, “I swear upon God, I did not convey any message to the King of Saudi Arabia about Gen Musharraf or Nawaz Sharif, and neither did any such matter come under discussion in my latest meeting with King Abdullah.” This was how Interior Minister Rehman Malik dismissed all conspiracy theories surrounding his latest dash to Saudi Arabia, and the interesting ‘coincidence’ of former president Musharraf literally entering the royal palace gates, as he departed from the same building.
He also said that there were no restriction on Musharaf’s coming back to Pakistan and that the “”gates were open for him”. But then true to his style of throwing his own spin on matters he gave the impression of ‘orchestrating a thawing of hitherto frosty relations between Riyadh and Islamabad’ and said, “Time will reveal the achievements for Pakistan that were secured as a result of this visit”. Soon, the prime minister and the president too would be visiting Saudi Arabia, he said.
The minister claimed that a badly injured Maulana Fazlullah, with one leg severed by a bombing injury, was surrounded by government troops in Swat and that it was only a matter of time before “he too will meet the fate of his master Baitullah Mehsud”. He vowed: “We will chase them till the elimination of the last terrorist.”
He said that 47 hardcore extremists involved in foiled terrorist plot to hit the Parliament House, the ISI building and other sensitive installations had been arrested so far.
Replying to questions pertaining to Indian allegations of non-cooperation by Pakistan in Mumbai investigations, the minister came down hard on India. “Let’s stop the blame game and play fair game”, he said, addressing India rather sharply, adding that it were the Indian authorities that had dragged their feet all along. He started off by pointing out that the first formal response to Pakistan’s 9th February request for information came on June 20th and that too in Marathi language and that this information too was “partial and half cooked”. Besides citing other Indian lapses, he pointed out that India refused to share the Samjotha Express dossier which was of critical importance as “a friendly country, which is also close to India, had told us that one of the Mumbai terrorists was also involved in the Mumbai incident”.
Commenting upon India’s incessant criticism of Hafiz Saeed issue, he shot back, “India gave us the latest evidence only 10 days back and we need a few days to evaluate its veracity and also whether it can take the test of our courts. We cannot operate on hearsay alone”, adding, “We respect your courts, you respect ours”.
When his attention was drawn to the recent statement by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh about another attack from the Pakistani soil, he threw the gauntlet at India by saying, “If India shared any intel it had in this regard with us, then Pakistan would get back with the results within 72 hours”.
He said that there was ample evidence of Indian involvement in fomenting trouble in Balochistan and elsewhere. He also revealed that only recently, agencies had nabbed 22 school teachers who had been trained in an Afghanistan-based terrorist camp and had returned to Pakistan to inculcate anti-Pakistan sentiment in impressionable young students to encourage their participation in illegal and destructive activities.
When the minister was asked to explain whether he was deliberately thwarting the signing of an extradition treaty between the UK and Pakistan owing to his friendship with MQM supremo Altaf Hussain, he denied it in a matter of fact tone. Claiming instead that the delay was being caused by the fact that the UK had an issue with countries having capital punishment and that the treaty had been under review for the last eight months.
He then hastened to add that Altaf Hussain was his “personal friend and an important ally of the government”.
Responding to a query, he said the charge of the presence of an operative of the infamous firm, Blackwater, in Peshawar was exhaustively investigated by intelligence agencies and then he almost cleared the man by saying that the named person was found to be working on a US Aid visa in Pakistan. He did add, however, that the intelligence agencies were still probing the matter. The minister also confirmed having received reports about certain security agencies offering hefty salaries to their newly appointed personnel and said that he had directed the concerned agencies to probe the matter.
Categorically denying the report that 1,000 US marines have landed in Islamabad, he said the Pakistan government had not issued any permit to any such agency. Speaking exhaustively on the law and order situation of the country, he insisted that the nation must compare the ground situation today to that prevalent 18 months back to “form a fair and honest judgment on our performance”.
He argued that then Taliban were riding roughshod over the country and challenging even Islamabad but today stood routed in their own backyard, their leadership was in disarray, their morale at an all time low. Crediting public support and unanimity of view between the civilian and Khaki leadership, he said, “President Zardari and Prime Minister Gilani turned the tide through their determination and resolve”.
He said, “We prepared a comprehensive strategy to combat terrorism to maintain peace in the country and to save the people from extremism. From the day one, I kept pointing out the elements involved in terrorism in Swat. I kept saying that there was Talibanisation in Swat but some groups criticised my statements. But later people saw a triangular syndicate -- Taliban, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan and organisations like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, and Sipah-e-Sahaba -- having common goals, which were active in Swat. The people saw how they were used and how they were supported by the anti-Pakistan elements against our country. In the past, during the Afghan war, over 40,000 people of different countries involved in heinous crimes came to Afghanistan to take part in the fight and later stood up against Pakistan after the Soviet forces left Afghanistan. People were then hired on monthly salary of Rs 20,000 or Rs 15,000 or paid 60 US dollars per day for terrorist activities.
“Just imagine, there were only 300 religious seminaries that increased to 20,000 during the Afghan war. The terrorist outfits achieved disciplined force from the seminaries. The basic reason was poverty and unemployment. We faced Kalashnikov and heroin culture during the Afghan war and suicide bombing culture after 9/11.”
He said the Pakistan Army, the Frontier Corps and the NWFP Police sacrificed their lives to protect the country and to maintain peace in the region. “The courageous Swat operation saved the country even though some political leaders opposed the government’s decision,” he said.
To another question, he replied that the Balochistan issue was 62 years old and that due rights should be given to the people of the province.
The minister said that he had removed 35 checkposts set up in different sensitive areas of Balochistan before establishment of the PPP government. He said that police could seek help from the FC if needed.
He said the terrorists active in Northern Areas were equipped with the weapons that could not be bought privately. He said that such sophisticated weapons were in the use of armed forces of countries which provided the weapons to the militants.
He said President Zardari tendered apology, the prime minister announced package for the Baloch people, adding that 12.5% employment quota was fixed for Balochistan in the Centre to lessen the unemployment, adding that he allowed Matric as basic education to let them participate in federal employment.
Malik said that Balochistan incidents were initiated at the same time to destabilise the country following a plan masterminded by the anti-Pakistan forces. Incident of kidnapping of John Solanki happened two days before the arrival of UN secretary general. The hidden elements alleged that 6,000 Baloch were in the custody of federal forces while 645 women were confined to different jails. He said that allegations were totally baseless. Simultaneously, the attempts of ethnic religious controversies were made in Karachi and Gojra.
“We condemn the drone attacks”, Rehman Malik said in response of a question, adding that the air force hit the target where Qari Hussain was assembling suicide jackets. The interior minister said that real Hakimullah Mehsud had died, adding that the fake Hakimullah Mehsud was claiming that he was alive. He said that Tehrik-e-Taliban had divided into many groups, adding that Uzbeks were fighting from commander Nazir side and the others had scattered.
He said that he hadasked the militants to surrender. He said he had met with delegations of Meahsud and Wazir tribes to maintain peace in the area.
Praising the one-year tenure of President Zardari, he said the president’s politics was based on harmony and reconciliation, adding that even his political opponents had acknowledged his friendly politics.
Rehman Malik denied the misperception that the President House had become a ‘house of conspiracies’, saying that the “opponents sitting in Lahore, Karachi and Dubai were knitting conspiracies in their minds”.
