Qureshi seeks Bilawal’s suggestions on banned outfits issue

LAHORE: The Foreign Minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, has invited Pakistan People’s Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to furnish his suggestions in writing about the measures he wanted against the banned organisations in the country.

Speaking in the Geo News programme ‘Naya Pakistan’, Qureshi said he, as a representative of the government and his party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, would like to invite Bilawal to suggest what the government should do to address his concerns. “What he (Bilawal) would have done to tackle the issue of banned outfits had he been in the government? We are ready to discuss the issue with the PPP chairman,” added the foreign minister.

He said he would contact the PPP leadership on the issue as the matter is related to Pakistan’s future. India wanted to push Pakistan to black list from gray list on banned outfits’ money-laundering issue. When Bilawal would sit with the ministers and discuss the sensitive issues, there is possibility that he would agree with the government’s viewpoint. The minister said the PTI government is taking solid steps to tackle the banned organisations issue. “Had the previous governments of the PPP and the PML-N taken steps against these outfits during the past 10 years, Pakistan’s position would have been quite different today,” added the minister. He said the government had talked to opposition leader in National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif and PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari on the issue to banned outfits and their attitude was positive.

To a question, he said he had welcomed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s felicitation message on Youm-e-Pakistan. However, he added, we would have to be ultra cautious as the Modi government could take any step till the general election in his country to win the polls.