Zardari blames dictators for increased militancy

ISLAMABAD - PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari has said that social and political stability of Pakistan, region and the whole world depends on the social and political stability of the tribal areas, and keeping all this in mind the coalition government has worked out a strategy to contain militancy and terrorism in the country’s restive areas bordering Afghanistan.
He was talking to the party MNAs from Frontier, who were invited for a meeting at Zardari House on Monday to discuss political and socio-economic issues pertaining to the province, with particular reference to the war on terror, Talibanization and suggestion to resolve the issues.
Those who were present in the meeting included Lal Muhammad Khan, Khanzada Khan, Malik Azmat, Tariq Khattak, Noor Alam Afridi and Said Allauddin.
The Frontier MNAs briefed the Party’s Co-Chairman on their perspective on the ongoing war on terror and on containing militancy.
Terming the FATA crisis as political issue PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari asked the Party legislators to go out in their areas and explain the Party’s anti-terror strategy and enlist public support in the fight against militancy to save Pakistan.
Asif Ali Zardari said that the main plank of the PPP’s FATA policy was political engagement, massive socio-economic development and finally to use force, as and when necessary, to restore the writ of the state but in such a manner that there was no or minimum collateral damage.
He said that FATA was extremely backward and stressed the urgent need to integrate it in the mainstream politics without affecting the traditions and customs of its people.
Putting the blame of the growth of militancy in these areas on successive dictatorial rule in the country, Asif Ali Zardari said that during the Afghan war against the erstwhile Soviet Union some elements in the intelligence apparatus had developed linkages with the militant elements, resulting now in the ensuing unrest in these areas.
He recalled the words of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto a few days before returning to Pakistan, saying in a newspaper article, “If elected Prime Minister of Pakistan in the election to be held later this year, I will end that protection of the Taliban and Al Qaida immediately”.
He said that in order to bring FATA into the mainstream politics Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto had moved the Supreme Court to extend the Political Parties Act to the tribal areas. This he said was necessary as the religious parties used mosque and pulpit to spread their political message but the mainstream democratic parties were barred from presenting the alternative view due to the non-application of the Political Parties Act in the tribal areas.