Daesh has no organised foothold in Pakistan: FO

ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office on Thursday clarified that Daesh has no organized foothold in Pakistan.The clarification came after a statement made by Intelligence Bureau chief Aftab Sultan during a Senate hearing on Wednesday.

In his weekly news briefing on Thursday, Foreign Office Spokesman Nafees Zakaria said that Pakistan had consistently been supporting regional efforts against terrorism and extremism and its stance against Daesh and its supporters was no secret. He said that was the reason that Islamabad had welcomed a 34-nation coalition against terrorism. He said that details and modalities of joining the coalition were being worked out. He also said the fourth meeting of Quadrilateral Coordination Group on Afghanistan would be held in Kabul on 23rd of this month.

Answering a question, Zakaria said that dialogue was the key to resolving outstanding issues with India. No date has yet been fixed for foreign secretaries talks, he said, adding both sides were in constant touch with each other at various levels to sort out issues before the talks.India and Pakistan are also in contact vis-a-vis investigation into the Pathankot incident, he said

Replying to question whether Pakistan had struck the LNG deal with Qatar under pressure from the United States as an alternative to Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline, he said the reason was in fact Pakistan’s severe energy shortage as it could not afford to depend on a single country to meet its energy needs.

To a question if Pakistan would provide logistic support to the 34 nation coalition formed by Saudi Arabia for landing troops in Syria, the FO spokesman said Pakistan was in favour of resolution of the conflicts of Middle East and the Islamic world through peaceful reconciliation.

About the shifting of embassies and foreign missions from the residential area of Islamabad under orders from the Supreme Court, he said the Capital Development Authority (CDA) in this regard had directly approached the owners of the houses rented out to the embassies.However, he said, the Foreign Affairs ministry had been contacted by the foreign missions and the CDA to facilitate and support the process.