The newspaper said Pakistan should hesitate to assist the "world" in "backlisting" Azhar

Pakistan daily gives tongue-lashing to Imran Khan, China over Masood Azhar! Designation of the dreaded Jaish e Mohammed (JeM) terrorist Masood Azhar at United Nations as a global terrorist should not be stopped by the Imran Khan government and Beijing, Karachi-based Dawn has said in its report. In an editorial, Dawn has said that there are no ‘good’ or ‘bad’ terrorist groups. The daily has warned Islamabad that all extremist outfits have either caused or were capable of “wreaking havoc in the country”. This hard-hitting report comes in the wake of China using “technical reasons” to block India’s move to designate Azhar as global terrorist at the United Nations Security Council.

The report clearly pointed out to the “dangers of the path” that Masood Azhar and his terror outfit Jaish adopted to merge pro-Kashmir Jihadi groups with those subscribing to sectarian militancy within Pakistan. Banning of such Jihadi groups won’t deter them from carrying out ghastly attacks, Pakistan administration needs to eliminate them so that they “never come back to life”, the editorial says. The newspaper said Pakistan should hesitate to assist the “world” in “backlisting” Azhar. However, Dawn, which is considered as Pakistan’s prominent daily, said India’s efforts to designate Azhar “are not altogether altruistic.”

A Jaish terrorist carried out a ghastly attack on the CRPF convoy on Jammu-Srinagar Highway in Pulwama. Following that the US, UK and France on February 27 moved a proposal to designate Azhar under the 1267 al Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the UNSC. However, Beijing for the fourth time blocked India’s bid to enlist the Pakistan-based terrorist.

Earlier, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi during an interview to CNN and BBC revealed that Azhar was residing in Pakistan and was “unwell”. Meanwhile, Pakistan and China are holding a bilateral dialogue during which Qureshi will meet his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi to discuss relationship between Islamabad and Beijing.