Pro-Taliban Deobandi party leader says Army will not act against Haqqani network

In what appeared to harm Pakistani interests and malign Pakistan in the eyes of the international community, pro-Taliban Deobandi party JUI-S leader Samiul Haq said on Wednesday that the Pakistan Army would not take any action against the Haqqani network.

Addressing a press conference at the National Press Club Islamabad, he also claimed those he was affiliated with “were still fighting the Americans in Afghanistan”. His statement seems to be aimed at vindicating the allegations of US President Donald Trump against Pakistan.
Sami ul Haq also heads a pro-Taliban alliance Defence of Pakistan Council in which banned terrorist outfits such as proscribed ASWJ (Sipah-e-Sahaba) is also a member. Flanked by the leaders of other DPC component parties, Fazalur Rehman Khalil and PML-Zia MNA Ijazul Haq, Sami said he did not agree with the recent briefing by the ISPR.
“It is not possible that Pakistan will conduct any operation against the Haqqanis,” he declared, blaming Gen Musharraf for siding with the US “for money” and said “That dictator was a weak man who sided with the US for money and left the whole nation to face terrorism and chaos,” he said, adding that “We do not want any American money; it is not even justified as they have brought unimaginable woes to the Muslims in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
However, he evaded a question about the moral status of money and material support extended by the US to nearly all jihadi groups in the past.
Samiul Haq, who is the chief of his own faction of the Jamiat Ulema Islam (JUI-S), also issued a call for ‘jihad’ to every section of society.
When asked about terrorist attacks being carried out in Pakistan by local actors affiliated with religious groups, Sami made a false claim that no Pakistani was involved in killing innocent people.
He said: “We are fighting the Americans in Afghanistan and those who cannot fight are waging jihad with their words and pens; the whole nation needs to rise up to defeat the West.”
However, he and other speakers also blamed the government of Pakistan for pursuing a “failed foreign policy’” and demanded that parliament register their protest on the matter.