HYDERABAD, April 11: Federal Minister for Information and Media Development Shaikh Rasheed Ahmed has said that the government wanted to resolve all contentious issues including the issue of LFO through talks.

He was speaking at a meet the press programme, which was organized by the Hyderabad Press Club on Friday.

He did not agree with a questioner that the Lahore High Court had accepted the claim of the opposition parties regarding the LFO.

He said that the decision in fact supported the stand of the government. He, however, conceded that parliament was the supreme body.

He said that the government had successfully withstood many shocks such as 9/11, the war in Afghanistan war, the war in Iraq, and the massing of Indian forces on its borders for a full one year.

He said Pakistan had been universally acknowledged as a moderate Islamic state.

He said that the world today stood divided including the UN, the European Union, the Organization of Islamic Conference, the Arab League, and the Non-Aligned Movement.

He claimed that the foreign policy of Pakistan had been praised by all the countries including the US, France, and China.

Answering a question that the PML(Q) chief had accepted the demand of the MMA that President Gen Pervez Musharraf should leave the post of COAS, the information minister said that it was a total distortion of facts.

He said there was no way that the President should put off his uniform in view of the volatile world situation.

He said that the miscreants and saboteurs who tried to damage the gas pipeline would be dealt with an iron hand.

He did not agree that the government had failed to enforce its writ in the Sui Gas area. He said although the government wanted to resolve this issue through negotiations as the people of the area had some genuine problems, nonetheless the government was quite capable of dealing with terrorists and saboteurs with an iron hand.

Reffering to the pre-emptive strike by India, Shaikh Rasheed Ahmed said that he had already given a befitting reply to the Indian foreign minister and did not want to add anything more to his earlier statement. He, however, assured that Pakistan was invincible. About the Thal canal, the Kalabagh Dam, and NFC issues, he said that a lot of time had already been wasted on these matters.