President Pervez Musharraf said on Tuesday that Pakistan will emerge as a very moderate, extremely progressive, dynamic and economically vibrant country in the world. He was speaking at a reception given by Sindh Governor Dr Ishrat-ul-Ibad Khan in honour of delegates of the defence exhibition and seminar IDEAS-2006 at Governor House here.
He said a very small segment of the 160 million population in Pakistan belonged to extremist elements, while the majority was peace loving and moderate.
"We will fight with extremist and terrorists, beat them and crush them and emerge as a very moderate, extremely progressive, dynamic and economically vibrant Islamic Republic of Pakistan," Pervez Musharraf added.
President invited foreign delegates to explore Pakistan as a unique country and not to be misled by the travel advisories.
"We are trying to promote tourism in Pakistan and invite foreign delegates and Karachiites to visit Northern Areas where they will find variety of weather, loftiest mountains4 beautiful plains, inhospitable deserts, forests, a virgin coastline, cradle of various religions and civilisations," he remarked.
He suggested not to pay heed to the propaganda and see for themselves that cities like Karachi, Lahore and Northern Areas of Pakistan are peaceful and safe.
"I was visiting various places in Karachi last night around 2 O'clock for more than one hour. I saw most fabulous places like Bagh-e-Ibne Qasim at Clifton, President Pervez Musharraf said.
He specifically praised City Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal and Sindh Governor Dr Ishrat-ul-Ibad for undertaking development and beautification projects in Karachi and said they deserved appreciation. They are doing so much for the city and they deserved special words of praise for this, he said. The President invited the City Nazim to stand by his side and appreciated his efforts.
He said 6000-years-old Mehar Garth civilisation existed in Balochistan, (relics of) thousands of years-old Ghandhara and Moenjodaro civilisations, that much before the Christ are also in Pakistan. Pakistan is the cradle of three religions like Buddhism, Sikhism and Hinduism. Alexander the Great also came to this part of the world and left behind his descendants (in the form of) Kalash tribe in Chitral. He said Pakistan offers extremely hot weather at plots 50 degree celsius in Balochistan area and on the opposite it has extremely cold temperature at minus 50 degrees as well.
Earlier, the Director General of Defence Export Promotion Organisation (DEPO) Major General Syed Absar Husain said IDEAS had achieved great success in a short span of time and it was moving forward steadily. He noted that this success was not possible without the continuous support and patronage of President Pervez Musharraf.
He said IDEAS was a brainchild of President Musharraf, DEPO chief also lauded the support of the Armed Forces, Sindh Governor, City Nazim and the Sindh Government for successfully holding this mega event.