Calling it a "battle for the soul of Pakistan", the country's UN Ambassador Munir Akram has said that Islamabad was determined to counter terrorism and eliminate extremism. "This is going to be a long campaign but we are determined to win," he told BBC in an interview on Friday night.
"It is the battle for the soul of Pakistan, indeed the soul of Islamic World. We have to win it and we are determined to do so," the ambassador said while answering a question an increase in terrorists' bombings across the country.
Akram, who appeared on BBC's The World Tonight news programme, said that the extremists' are in a minority and they are desperate, and that's why the agitation. He also said that all political parties are with President General Pervez Musharraf in the campaign against extremism and terrorism.
"There is no difficulty there; even the religious parties are not happy with the way the militants have been behaving- so, I think, that the whole political spectrum is behind him as far as his actions against militants and the extremists are concerned.
"There is no change there and the democratic process is not being disturbed by the fight against militancy. We have to win this fight on a different plane and I think that the political issues in Pakistan should not be confused with the fight against militancy," he added.
In combating terrorism, Ambassador Akram said Pakistan needed technological upgrading to improve its ability to counter the menace. Calling Pakistan's anti-terror strategy a comprehensive one, he said, "We have to combine military, police, intelligence with political and economic measures."
Questioned whether it was time for President Musharraf to start talking with political opponents like PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto and PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif, the ambassador said: "I think naturally we would be happy with all forces that support democracy, that support modernism, that support the goals of a dynamic Pakistan growing rapidly economically and I think if all those who support this cause would, of course, be brought under the tent. There are some political issues that need to be resolved, but I don't think it is impossible to resolve them."
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