Rehman Malik, Advisor to Prime Minister on Interior has categorically denied any talks with terrorists saying that the government will not enter dialogue with extremists in Fata and Balochistan.
"We are in dialogue process with local people for maintaining peace in the tribal areas and are firm to attain the desired results," Rehman said while addressing a conference of District Coordination Officers (DCOs) of disaster-prone areas of the country. The conference was jointly organised by National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), here on Tuesday.
No dialogue would be held with 'terrorists' until they give up arms and join the mainstream, Rehman Malik said, adding the government supported talks with peaceful people but not with men having arms and attacking security forces and destroying the infrastructure.
He dispelled the impression that the government was in contacts with extremists saying that the government was not in any kind of contact with terrorists in any part of the country. Terrorism is more than a natural disaster which has destroyed the country, he added.
He said that the government will set up Disaster Management Authority in every district to deal promptly with disasters or natural calamities. "A mechanism will be evolved which will become active automatically in case of any disaster," he said. "We are looking forward to train 100,000 volunteers, give them stipend and other facilities," Malik said.
Malik supported the relief and rehabilitation operation through DCOs in disaster areas saying that the DCO has a power to call army to support the civil administration in case of any disaster. "Legislation was made to give more financial and executive powers to DCOs," he added.
He emphasised on the transparency in disaster management and said that well-co-ordinated efforts would help in addressing the problems of people in the hour of need. Malik highlighted the commitment of the government to disaster management regime under the existing law and said the federal government is firm to put in place the institutional arrangements for disaster risk reduction at grass-roots levels through district governments.
Malik said that the Interior Secretary has been directed to arrange training for the DCOs so that they could tackle the issue of terrorism in an effective manner. He took serious note of the absence of DCOs from the conference and said that the DCOs make sure their presence in any meeting in future. Lieutenant General Farooq Ahmad Khan (Retd), Chairman NDMA, in his address said that the previous government had given the authority of the disaster management to District Nazim who was an elected representative of the people of the area. "They worked hard with honesty and activated the community and supported the people in need," he said.