The NWFP Governor Owais Ahmed Ghani said on Friday that Pakistan was a great gift of God and it was created due to matchless sacrifices of our forefathers and stressed the need of forging unity among all segments of the society to protect it from internal and external threats.
Addressing an impressive ceremony to celebrate the 63rd Independence Day of Pakistan here at Governor House, the Governor said that living nations celebrate their independence day with great zeal and enthusiasm and Pakistani nation is one step ahead in celebrating their national days in most befitting manner. On this occasion national anthem was played and the students of City School Branch and Garrison Public School sung national songs that received warm applause from the audience.
The Governor said the today's momentous day is very special in Pakistan history as the growing threats of extremism and terrorism faced by the country for the last couple of years has started rollback and the government had achieved great success to curb these menaces with the active support of people.
Likewise, he said that many settled areas were converted into no-go areas and administrative system was almost paralysed there. This situation, he said, was unacceptable for any governor and three pronged-strategy has been formed to counter insurgency and militancy.
First thing we did was to create awareness among masses about issues of militancy and terrorism, secondly focus was given on capacity building of law enforcing agencies and administrative system and military actions was taken to defeat the menaces of insurgency and terrorism. Likewise, he said that focus was made on improvement of good governance. He said this strategy was proved very successful.
Due to the government effective measures, he said the writ of government has been restored in troubled areas and threats faced to Peshawar and other settled areas were rollback with great success. The Governor asked the people to avoid rumours as these ploys are being ploted by anti state elements to fulfil their vested agenda.
He said that 19 months have been completed while working on this broad based strategy and 11 more months would be required to bring complete normalcy. The Governor later mixed with children and congratulated them over their excellent performance. Later, the people mixed with Governor and congratulated him over Jishan Azadi.
Later, taking to reporters, he said that reforms in FCR were meant to provide speedy justice to tribesmen. He said that FCR tribunal will be headed by a person, who qualify for High Court judge and it would be independent forum. He said that 633 security personnel had embraced Shahdat and 3000 injured during fight against militancy and terrorism since last two years.