ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Senator Rehman Malik on Saturday asked the government to link its support to the US-Taliban dialogue with the withdrawal of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) case against Pakistan.

Speaking to reporters in the parliament hosue on Saturday, he said the government had been playing a key role in US-Taliban talks selflessly and still the US was pursuing its complaint against Pakistan involving serious implications for the country.

The former interior minister said Pakistan suffered the most in the war on terror and it must make the support conditional and request the US to withdraw its case in the FATF.

He said the US should show courtesy of withdrawing the unnecessary case which was highly discriminatory and looked to be the specifically targeted action against Pakistan, which had a record of rendering invaluable support in the war on terror.

The PPP leader, who heads the Senate standing committee on interior, said Pakistan had been suffering from day one after committing the blunder of plunging into the Afghan-Soviet Union war to support the US, and after 9/11, once again it opted to be part of the US-motivated war on terror.

He said that historically speaking, Pakistan had suffered heavily both in terms of loss of human lives and damage caused to physical infrastructure worth tens of billions dollars.

Mr Malik said the Afghan war gave birth to Jihadis against whom Pakistan was fighting a war post 9/11 till today.

He said unfortunately Pakistan was today being penalised because of those Jihadis who were actually brought in by the US and subsequently used by it in the Afghan- Soviet Union war, and had been trained and financed by the CIA.

“The sufferings of Pakistan as per public record are because of our participation and backing of US logistics in the war,” he remarked.

He urged the US to withdraw the case in the FATF to show courtesy to the people of Pakistan and to improve its already deteriorated economy instead of making Indian prime minister Narendra Modi happy by keeping Islamabad under pressure in the FATF.

Published in Dawn, January 19th, 2020