ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Pakistan on Thursday said it was deeply disappointed over the failure of the UN Security Council’s Sanctions Committee to list Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA) leader Abdul Wali, a known terrorist who had the blood of hundreds of innocent Pakistanis on his hands.
“If the organization Jamaat-ul-Ahrar has been listed by the Sanctions Committee, its leader should also have been listed,” the Foreign Office Spokesman Dr Muhammad Faisal said in his weekly media briefing in Islamabad.
His remarks came in reply to a question after the UN Security Council’s Al-Qaeda/ISIL Sanctions Committee did not approve Pakistan’s proposal to list Abdul Wali, commonly known as Umer Khalid Khurasani, since it could not reach consensus due to objection by the United States.
The US, according senior Pakistani diplomatic source, didn’t endorse the Pakistani request because Khurasani was operating from Afghanistan.
Though, Dr Faisal said, the Sanctions Committee had not yet formally conveyed that development to Pakistan.
In reply to a question, the Spokesman said Pakistan and the United States shared the common objective of peace & stability in Afghanistan.
The Spokesman said issues facing Afghanistan were internal to Afghanistan, adding Pakistan as a neighbour could only support the Afghan government and the US in their efforts towards lasting peace and development in Afghanistan.
When asked that will the Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline be affected after the recent US withdrawal from the nuclear deal with Tehran?, Dr Faisal said both Pakistan and Iran were in talks on the matter.