Nisar For Differentiating Between Freedom Movement, Terrorism;

ISLAMABAD (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th August, 2016) : Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan Thursday categorically called for differentiating between freedom movement and terrorism, urging SAARC member countries to respect the peoples rights enshrined in the United Nations Security Council resolutions. "We believe, it is important to maintain differentiation between terrorism and freedom movement particularly those which have been sanctified by the UN Security Council," he said addressing the conference of Interior Ministers from South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries. "We have seen that brutal force has been used against unarmed civilians and it is important to respect the fundamental rights of the people and not suppress freedom struggle in the name of fight against terrorism," Chaudhry Nisar said in special reference to Indian atrocities against unarmed Kashmiris, who are waging struggle against India's occupation. Nisar said terrorism was a global problem and this region had been afflicted by this menace.

But, in this scenario, instead of blaming each other there is a need to hold dialogue and resolve the issues, he added. "I need not to mention that Pakistan itself has been one of the biggest sufferers of terrorism and very firmly and strongly believes that instead of engaging in blame game and taking swipe at each other, we should take out time to sit down together and try to work out the problem - to work out any reservation which we might have towards each other," the minister said. "It is needless to say Pakistan is ready to engage in any dialogue with any country.

Pakistan has never closed the doors for dialogue with any country. It is for those who have actually closed the doors and have put conditions and sub-conditions." Chaudhry Nisar said, terrorist activities are not restricted to India, Afghanistan or Bangladesh and such incidents there are highly condemnable.

"But, it does not mean that hundreds of terrorism incidents taking place in Pakistan are less condemnable." He urged to sit together and resolve differences as he cited that it was not fair to swipe at each other by using terms like Good Taliban and Bad Taliban.

"I think we have come a long way since then and the answer is that we should sit down and resolve our disputes." But, beyond that we must also need to look at the genesis of terrorism and resolution of unresolved disputes is the only way ahead to address these deep fissures that have evolved over decades, he added. "I need not go into details.

I need not to mention whole incidents because the essence of multilateralism should be respected here but I just like to point out that Pakistan faces terrorism from across its borders and blatant interventions in our internal affairs," Nisar said. "Such disputes cannot be wished away - they can be resolved only through mutual discussion and using platforms like SAARC.

Let us sit together regionally and try and address the issues," he said.

The interior minister also urged attempts to counter perpetrators religiously motivated that are also an issue of serious concern for us. Such people should be immediately tried and convicted to prevent occurrence of such incidents in the future.

"How these matters will be resolved - only through negotiation and discussion," he said. "Podiums like the SAARC are important that bring respected member states, ministers and officials closer for a dialogue.

But, when these forums are just made a venue for statements - one statement that does not help the cause of regional cooperation, my request again to the Secretary General is that these venues should be used for informal and frank discussions." Nisar called for rising above national agendas to resolve the bilateral and regional issues.

"We shall have to rise above our national agenda - we have to rise above, may be even on years old held positions, because if we stick to our positions, if we are rigid and the essence of our policy is point scoring, or taking swipes at each other - we will never get to anywhere." The minister said, he genuinely feels that the time has come to hammer out solutions. He mentioned the incidents of Charsadda, Army Public school, Lahore Park and said, one incident took hundreds of lives, most of them children and teachers. He said Pakistan is a country that cannot attach a lot of motives, lot of conditions and lot of tales.

"We will not. We try to avoid that as much as possible. We have not put the blame on our neighbors, but yet there are elements which might be, or might not be operating under state control." "You have certain reservations about us and we have certain reservations about you.

So, is not this the time for us to work out solutions having not been engaged in blame game for the last six decades and gone nowhere. So I hope that the summit which is going to follow right here in Islamabad in next two or three months - I hope that will serve a lot of soul searching from our side and may provide us an opportunity to sit together informally, and our leadership to work out solutions of the problems that have been afflicting this region." Nisar said undoubtedly there is consensus across the border on bringing peace in region and we should sit together in that spirit to resolve issues.

"Discussion that might not be possible in the layer of media publicity - may be heart to heart." "I have absolutely no doubt that there is across the board consensus on bringing peace to the region, but how do we achieve the objective of peace, it has to be through discussion and dialogue - sitting together for hours and days and weeks for mutual discussion - we do not have any other option," he added.