Riaz Pirzada, the federal minister for human rights, has claimed in a TV interview that the former DG ISI General Faiz Hameed wanted to ‘resettle’ Taliban fighters and thier families in Pakistan.
The claims were made on Dawn TV in an interview which will be aired later on Sunday.
Pirzada’s claims come after PTI’s Shireen Mazari, also a former minister for human rights, claimed that the proposal to settle Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan’s militants in Pakistan was made by then Army Chief General Qamar Bajwa. She also said that General Faiz was present when the proposal was made.
She had added that General Bajwa said that if the militants who had Pakistani nationalities laid down their arms and accepted the constitution, some sort of resettlement could be considered.
Mazari had went on to say that the PTI had recommended that a consenus be reached at the government level before any resettlement plans were made.
This is not the first time a resettlement plan has been mentioned amid the recent surge in terror attacks in Pakistan. Former PM Imran Khan also mentioned the plan earlier in February.
Khan had told a meeting of party leaders that a plan to resettle “30-40,000” militants had been under discussion after the fall of Kabul. He had also said that all stakeholders were being brought on board with the plan.
He said that the plan had been left in the middle after the ‘regime-change’ operation, acoording to him an indication of how ill-equipped the current government is to deal with the issue. He had said that this was the reason terrorism seemed to be surging again.
The current PDM government had repeatedly labelled the Khan-led PTI government as ‘selected by the establishment’. General Faiz was a particularly mentioned by the PML-N and PPP for his alleged support for the PTI government. General Faiz was serving as the DG ISI when the Taliban took over Afghanistan after the American withdrawal. However, he was removed from the post later in 2021, a few months before Imran Khan would be ousted through a vote of no confidence.
