ISLAMABAD: Senator Farhatullah Babar said Monday that the phenomenon of missing persons, the Electronic Crimes Act and brutal attacks on journalists are links of the same chain designed to stifle dissent against state narrative on critical issues.
He said this during a discussion on missing persons held in the Senate on Monday. On the occasion, Farhatullah said that the common thread that linked missing persons and attacks on journalists in the country was that all victims were opposed to the state narrative, due to which dissenters suffered at the hands of state organs.
He said that the latest victim of this phenomenon was Ahmad Noorani, a senior reporter working for an English daily. Those who could not be easily made to disappear were charged under the Electronic Crimes Act, and those who could be charged under the law were easily beaten up by invisible elements.
Speaking on another motion regarding border management, Farhatullah Babar said that border management was necessary with Afghanistan, but Pakistan should keep in mind that it had to be with mutual consultation as laid down in the binding agreements. The issue of border management should not obstruct trade between the two countries, he added.
He said that those wanting to use transit trade as a tool to manipulate Afghanistan should not forget that Kabul had chartered new trade routes. Just yesterday India shipped its first consignment of wheat to Afghanistan through the newly built port of Chahbahar which bypassed Pakistan, he added. He further said that a train link between Uzbekistan and Afghanistan’s Mazar Sharif had already been completed.
Moreover, the senator said that President Ashraf Ghani had been emboldened by increasing independence in policy making and had already banned Pakistani trucks from entering Afghanistan. The Afghan government was now demanding transit trade as quid pro quo for Pakistan’s trade with central Asian states, he added.
He warned policy makers to pay heed to the changing atmosphere of the region rather than opting to jump the gun and making the situation more complicated.
