Foreign Office on Monday said that the peace agreement between the government and the local Taliban in tribal areas was still intact. Speaking at weekly briefing, Foreign Office spokesperson Tasneem Aslam claimed: "The deal has not been scrapped and the negotiations are going on. The NWFP governor, who is the focal person, is looking after the negotiation process."
She said there was need of a comprehensive strategy to address the issues in tribal territories which included political and economic approach, and also military action wherever and whenever necessary.
Commenting on a statement of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, quoted as suggesting the creation of United States of Kashmir, the spokesperson reminded the President Pervez Musharraf's proposals for greater interaction between Kashmiris on both sides.
She said Pakistan always made sincere efforts for resolving mutual issues particularly the Kashmir dispute. "Pakistan favours that any "out of the box" solution on Kashmir should reflect the wishes of Kashmiris."
The spokesperson rejected a recent resolution by European Union, which demanded of the President Musharraf to doff uniform, saying "It is an interference in Pakistan's internal matters. No country or regional bloc can ask Pakistan what to do and what not to do."
The resolution did not represent the policy of the European Union, she said. Responding to a question on European Union's concern over the "erosion of democratic values in Pakistan" and urging President Musharraf to give up his army post as previously agreed with the EU, Ms Aslam said many of the EU's resolutions passed time to time carried distortions and errors.
She recalled that the EU passed a resolution lamenting graduation condition for contesting national, and provincial assemblies' elections and terming it "gender-biased".
The spokesperson further said another EU resolution on Lal Masjid reflected the organisation's "confused approach" on war against terror in which Pakistan was playing a frontline state. About the Lal Mosque-Jamia Hafsa operation, She said some bodies had been found suspected of foreign militants.
However, the process was under way and the government had reliable evidence that there were some foreign militants in Lal Masjid. She, however, clarified that Interior Ministry would be in a better position to comment.
She termed the impression "absurd and ridiculous" that the military operation against Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa was carried out to please the United States. Such an impression did not deserve to be commented, she stated. The spokesperson rejected the impression that in the recent past, al Qaeda from Pakistan had been operating in Iraq and said there was no such evidence in this connection.
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