President Asif Ali Zardari has vowed to defeat militancy with an unflinching resolve as the government would not allow anybody to play with the fate of Pakistan and its people. "I pledge to you that we will not step back," he said in an interaction with Pakistani-American community, when an expatriate praised the Pakistan People's Party-led government's current operation against militants in Swat, and asked the President not to retreat until success is achieved.
Wrapping up his a hectic four-day official visit to Washington with an address to the Pakistani community, President Zardari said the elected government tried the path of dialogue to turn the tide of militancy before it began the ongoing operation.
"I ask the misguided elements not to harm the country and that we would not let you damage the homeland. This was the motivation behind our democracy and the recent peace agreement in Swat valley. "The history will not judge that we did not adopt the option of dialogue with our own people," he said.
"We have accepted the difficult challenge of confronting the misguided people. We took the matter to the parliament, we have given it political ownership," the President stressed. "We have asked the extremists to give up weapons. If they do not surrender weapons and want to damage Pakistan, then we will fight them.
"We will fight them for the sake of our country and for the sake of our future generations," he added. As part of a comprehensive policy to address the menace of violent extremism in the long-term perspective, he said, the government would go for development of the people after clearing the areas of militants.
Zardari said: "We are following the policy set out by the parliament - dialogue, deterrence and development. In the dialogue phase, we spoke to them. They did not talk, so we have gone into the deterrence phase now. "After the deterrence phase, when we get rid of them physically, then we will go into the development phase," he said.
"At the same time, we are coming up with an alternative policy with the "Madressah" reforms also, whereby we will be enlarging curriculum of "Madressahs," and try to wean children away from militants," Zardari said.
The President said he understood the concern of expatriate Pakistanis about unrest in some north-western parts of the country, and promised that the government would do all it could to pull the country out of difficulties and hand over a better Pakistan to the next generation.
He said the democratically elected government had devised its policies after thorough consideration in line with Shaheed prime minister Benazir Bhutto's message of reconciliation. In this respect, he said, despite being in majority, the Pakistan Peoples Party got the Mohajir Qaumi Movement (MQM) and other parties allied with it in the Sindh government.
The government sympathised with the Balochs, who underwent suffering under dictatorship. "We are striving for reconciliation with all forces in Pakistan, rejuvenation of national institutions, reorganisation of Pakistan's strength. We have a lot of strength, but we have never allowed our full potential to be utilised for the good of the country," said the President.
On the foreign front, he said Pakistan had close relations with major powers, including China and the United States, and the government had been able to garner the support of the international community to grapple with the country's economic troubles.
"We have had relations with the United States, spanning over six decades, and now that this relationship was about to yield benefits, why should we antagonise, why not take it along, so that we have a better relationship in future," he argued. "There can be differences with any country, but at the moment Pakistan's interests are not in clash with interests of any super power of the world. We should look to future for our people."
The President cited the expression of wide international support for Pakistan at the Friends of Democratic Pakistan (FoDP) Forum in Tokyo last month, stating that "we have been able to rescue Pakistan's economy despite the global economic recession. This is our great achievement."
Zardari, who sought suggestions from the Pakistani-Americans said the government would pay due attention to facilitating growth of small and medium businesses. He informed them that the presidential office would host a website, which would help find economic opportunities for the Pakistanis, who were laid off on account of world-wide economic recession.
Earlier, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira apprised the Pakistani-Americans of the achievements the government had made over the last one year. Pakistan Ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani welcomed the President at the dinner with the community.
Comments
Comments are closed.