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| 06 March 2004 | Saturday | 14 Muharram 1425 |
President, PM pledge to curb sectarianism
ISLAMABAD, March 5: President Gen Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali on Friday held second meeting in five days and discussed the Quetta incident and activities of 'foreign terrorists' in tribal areas.
An official announcement said President Musharraf and Prime Minister Jamali, who met in Rawalpindi, reiterated their firm resolve to wipe out terrorism, extremism and sectarianism from Pakistani society.
The previous meeting was held on Monday which lasted for four hours. The two leaders reviewed internal security and the law and order situation in the country.
"They condemned the Quetta incident resulting in the loss of innocent lives and directed the authorities concerned to take all possible measures for apprehending those responsible and awarding them exemplary punishment," they said.
Over 40 people were killed in the Quetta incident. The president and the prime minister discussed the operations against foreign terrorists hiding in the tribal belt and the steps being taken for the socio-economic uplift of the area.
During the course of meeting, the implementation of the government's reforms agenda and other matters of national importance also came under discussion. Later, President Musharraf held a separate meeting with Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat and inquired about the overall law and order situation in the country and the progress of ongoing investigations into the Quetta incident.
An official announcement said the interior minister highlighted the various actions that had been initiated to preempt and curb such acts. He also briefed the president about progress on the implementation of the Police Order 2002.
The president directed that measures be taken for protecting the life and property of the citizens and stressed that the perpetrators of the Quetta incident be apprehended and punished. He underlined the need for taking all necessary steps for the prevention of such incidents in future.
Political analysts are attaching great importance to the second meeting of the president and the prime minister in one week, after a flurry of diplomatic activities during which the French and British foreign ministers visited Pakistan.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell is expected to visit Pakistan in the last fortnight of the current month.
APP adds: Information Minister Shaikh Rashid Ahmed called on President Musharraf on Friday and discussed various projects going on in Rawalpindi.
The president said the matter of leasing out residential accommodations by the cantonment board would be looked into sympathetically. The minister apprised the president about the matters confronting people, especially those who had sought loans from the house building corporation.
The president said that maximum relief should be provided for extension of house building loans, keeping in view the financial problems of the common man. He said the mark-up rate should also be reduced.
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