President to continue consultations: Troops on western border may be thinned out
By Our Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD, May 22: Pakistan has decided that if need be it will call back its peace-keeping forces from Sierra Leone, thin out troop presence on the western borders and to launch a diplomatic offensive as part of measures being taken to counter an imminent Indian aggression.
These measures were announced by President Gen Pervez Musharraf at his meeting with leaders of various political and religious parties held here with a view to forging unity and harmony in the country in the event of war with India, Information Minister Nisar Memon told Dawn.
Mr Memon said the president had taken the political leaders into confidence over the strategic measures being adopted by the government, and added that the United States had already been informed about the decision of pulling back troops engaged in anti-terrorism operations on the western borders.
These troops, he said, would be redeployed at the country’s eastern borders.
The minister said the United Nations had already been conveyed that Pakistan would not be able to spare one more brigade which it had earlier committed for peacekeeping operations in Sierra Leone, rather it would have to withdraw the one already serving there.
Among others Ajmal Khattak, Mian Azhar, Sardar Farooq Khan Leghari, Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, Imran Khan, Ilahi Bakhsh Soomro, Wasim Sajjad, Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo, Gohar Ayub Khan, Asfandyar Wali, Aftab Shaikh, Mumtaz Bhutto, Arbab Ghulam Rahim, Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan and Sardar Sikandar Hayat Khan attended the meeting.
President Musharraf, the minister said, had apprised the meeting that the government had also decided to inform the international community about the restraint exercised by Pakistan and the measures it had taken to reign in extremist forces.
The president was quoted as having stated at the meeting that the world community would also be informed about the government’s resolve not to allow any extremist or militant group to use Pakistani soil for carrying out militant activities in any country. The minister said that the foreign minister would make telephone calls to his counterparts in the west and other friendly countries in this regard.
The political leaders urged the president to contact all those parties which had refused to attend the meeting. They said that the government at this critical juncture should not make it a matter of ego and contact all the political parties and the invitations for another meeting should be extended to them.
President Musharraf, the information minister said, gave an assurance to continue the process of consultation and expressed his readiness to contact these leaders, saying “it is the question of country’s security and integrity”.
The president was even ready to send his cabinet members for contacting leaders of the Pakistan People’s Party, Pakistan Muslim League (N) and Jamaat-i-Islami, a source present at the meeting said.
Former caretaker prime minister Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi observed that the same question which President Bush had posed to Gen Musharraf after Sept 11 should be asked from the US leader. “We should ask the US president whether he is our friend or foe,” a source quoted Mr Jatoi as having suggested at the meeting.
Earlier, the meeting was briefed by the Director-General Military Operations, Maj-Gen Kiyani, about the border situation and Pakistan’s strategy in the event of war.
Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar informed the meeting about the world community’s response to the situation. He said that Pakistan would continue diplomatic support for the Kashmiri freedom fighters.
He said that in the aftermath of Sept 11 terror attacks, Pakistan could not afford militancy in Kashmir.
The meeting offered fateha for the slain Kashmiri leader Abdul Gani Lone.
