White House scraps petition to declare Pakistan terror sponsor on fraud suspicion

Islamabad: An ongoing petition that sought to declare Pakistan a state sponsor of terrorism has been shut down by the White House on suspicion of it being a fraud.

The White House in a blurb captioned, `Closed Petition`, has declared that the "petition has been archived because it did not meet the signature requirements. It can no longer be signed", reports the Dawn.

To receive a response from the White House the petition had to gather 100,000 signatures until October 21, under the rules of the programme that initiated such petitions.

The petition had 625,723 signatures at the time of closure but the White House said the page might have included fake signatures.

This petition was launched on a web page of White House called "We the People", which is open to all and hence, does not enjoy the security that other protected government web pages do.

The petitioners, who were mostly US citizens of Indian origin, had claimed that the designation was "important to the people of United States of America, India and many other countries which are constantly being affected by Pakistan sponsored terrorism".

The Indian community in the United States was hugely disappointed on the decision to end the petition; they were hoping to compel the US administration to take a public position against Pakistan on this matter.

Pakistani-Americans also had introduced a "We the People" petition, seeking to designate India a terrorist state.

While speaking to media about why they decided to end the anti-Pakistan petition, the White House officials referred only to "technical issues with some of the signatures.

"In the US House of Representatives a separate legislation was moved on September 20, by Congressmen Ted Poe and Dana Rohrabacher which sought Pakistan to be declared as a state sponsor of terrorist.