ISLAMABAD — Pakistan is already cracking down on the Haqqani network and does not need to impose extra measures following the group's addition to the UN's blacklist, a government spokesman said on Tuesday. The UN Security Council's Taliban sanctions committee on Monday added the Pakistan-based group, accused of high-profile attacks in Afghanistan, to its sanctions list. The action obliges all UN members to implement an asset freeze, travel ban and arms embargo for the Haqqani network. “The three elements of the ban – arms embargo, asset freeze and travel ban – are all already in place in Pakistan,” Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira told Reuters. The United States designated the Haqqani network as a terrorist organization in September, a move the group's commanders said proved Washington was not sincere about peace efforts in Afghanistan. The Haqqanis, a group allied with the Afghan Taliban, are the most experienced fighters in Afghanistan and are blamed for some of the boldest attacks, including one on embassies and parliament in Kabul in April that lasted 18 hours. Meanwhile Afghanistan welcomes the United Nations' decision to impose sanctions on the Haqqani network and would not negotiate for peace with the group blamed for several high-profile attacks in the country, the presidential spokesman said on Tuesday. Aimal Faizi, President Hamid Karzai's chief spokesman, said Kabul backed the UN decision, but added it should have been made a long time ago to weaken the Haqqanis, a Pashtun tribe allied to the Afghan Taliban, who he said had carried out most of the terrorist attacks in the nation over the past 10 years. Although the Afghan government is engaged in reconciliation talks with members of the Taliban, it rules out dialogue with the Haqqani group, believed to be based in the unruly border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan. “We don't want any kind of deal with the Haqqanis, who were behind many of the attacks on Afghan security forces and civilians including women and children,” Faizi told Reuters. “We have certain negotiating conditions with armed opposition groups but the Haqqanis do not meet the criteria and they are in the service of a foreign spy agency.” US officials have long accused Pakistan of supporting the network, an allegation Islamabad denies. “Which banned militant can openly travel in Pakistan? We have also checked on financing and other transfers. There is no problem,” Kaira said. A few months ago, the leader of a banned organization openly led a march into the capital, Islamabad. Gretchen Peters, who wrote a report on Haqqani finances for the Combating Terrorism Center, said Pakistan could shut down the Haqqanis if it wanted. “That's patently not true” that they have already cracked down, she said. — Reuters
