WASHINGTON: The United States has said that it doesn’t have anything to do with lifting the moratorium on executions in Pakistan as it is the latter’s internal issue.
“Well, clearly this is an issue for Pakistan – a decision for Pakistan, excuse me. It’s not really ours to weigh in on,” the US State Department spokesperson Marie Harf said during her daily press briefing .
“We have been in close contact with all levels of the Pakistani Government,” she said.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif lifted moratorium on death penalty for those convicted for terrorism on December 17, a day after the deadly attack on army public school in Peshawar that left 150 persons mostly children killed.
The spokesperson said that the US President Barack Obama and the Secretary of State John Kerry both spoke to the Pakistani premier and assured him to provide assistance in the wake of Peshawar horrific attack.
Harf further said that the US is concerned by the reports that Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, one of the main accused in the Mumbai attacks case, was granted bail recently by an anti-terrorism court.
“The Government of Pakistan has pledged its cooperation in bringing the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks to justice, and we urge them to uphold that promise,” the spokesperson said.
In reply to a question that do you see that Pakistan continues to discriminate, differentiate between good terrorists and bad terrorists? Harf said that the United States is concerned by the reports that Lakhvi got bail.
“We have worked very closely with Pakistan on counterterrorism. More Pakistanis are victims of counterterrorism, I think, than anywhere in the world. So clearly it’s a shared threat, but when we have concerns like this we’ll raise them,” Harf said.
