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| 05 August 2004 | Thursday | 18 Jamadi-us-Saani 1425 |
President defends Wana operation
RAWALPINDI, Aug 4: President Pervez Musharraf on Wednesday strongly defended the ongoing military operation in the South Waziristan tribal agency and his government's decision to keep the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal out of the action
taken to flush out terrorists from the area.
In a panel interview with Dawn at his Camp Office in Rawalpindi, he pointed out that the MMA had repeatedly claimed that Al Qaeda was not operating from that area. Therefore, he said, people who had basic differences with the government's assessment of such a situation could not be expected to play any role in eradicating the menace. Besides, he added, MMA's involvement in the matter would have upset tribal leaders who were cooperating with the government.
The president recalled that the government had declared amnesty for terrorists hiding in areas around the agency headquarters of Wana, but the MMA could not persuade even a single member of any terrorist group to lay down arms.
Realizing that the MMA was unable to help, the government adopted a two- pronged strategy: using political as well as military options, depending on the situation. He claimed that the government had achieved a lot of success in Wana.
Gen Musharraf said that extremism and terrorism could not be uprooted unless the West played its role in the promotion of education and elimination of poverty. He said terrorism thrived in places with widespread illiteracy and rampant poverty - a good hunting ground for vested interests to look for innocent people who would be ready to lay down their lives on the simple promise of a passport to paradise.
In the same context, the president urged the West to resolve the issues of Kashmir, Palestine and Iraq to deny terrorists any reason to advance their designs. In his opinion, his concept of enlightened moderation has been very effective and helpful in dealing with terrorism and extremism.
Terrorists, the president said, worked on three tiers: executers, planners and masterminds. Cognizant of the working of the terrorist groups and the role of each tier, he said, the government was focusing on the 'mastermind'.
He said that although planners in various cases had been apprehended, the mastermind behind the attacks on him was still at large. The president severely criticized the 'fundamentalists' who, he said, were anchored in the past and were opposed to using the values of Islam to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
Then, he said, there were extremists who wanted to impose their views on others. These people were producing terrorists through their own mechanism, he added. Defending the arrests of some people in Karachi and Lahore, the president said they were harbouring terrorists and providing medical treatment and refuge to them. However, he would not say much about them as the matter was subjudice.
He said there was a time when some organizations were recruiting people for Jihad and raising funds. They were so daring that at places they deployed their own people to control traffic so that their 'recruitment drive' went on unhindered.
But, he said, as a result of the steps taken by the government the situation had changed a lot and such scenes were not seen any more. Admitting that eradication of terrorism was too big a task to be accomplished only by the agencies, the president urged the civil society to play its role. For this purpose, he said, the media should create awareness among people.
BALOCHISTAN: About the situation in Balochistan, the president said that vested interests were opposed to the establishment of cantonments in Kohlu, Sui and Gwadar and therefore they were expressing resentment. He declared in unambiguous terms that proposed cantonments would be set up, come what may, and the opposition would subsequently end.
The president said the role of police, Frontier Constabulary, Punjab Constabulary and the Sindh and Punjab Rangers in Balochistan would be defined so that they performed their duties within their spheres. He said that police had been given huge financial allocations, unthinkable in the past.
KARGIL ISSUE: Gen Musharraf disputed former prime minister Mian Nawaz Sharif's statement about the number of casualties in Kargil conflict. He said the Indian casualties were much more than Pakistan's.
"It hurts me when an ex-premier undermines his own forces," he said of Mr Sharif, who in a recent interview to an Indian magazine claimed that the casualties of Pakistani troops in Kargil were much more than in the wars of 1965 and 1971 put together.
He said the Indian media had published stories about how the nominee of a posthumous highest military award turned out to be alive. Also, he said, India's military leaders had reported fictional encounters in Siachen to win awards. Now, he added, such people were facing inquiries and court martial there.
HONOUR KILLING: The president said he was keen to see an end to honour killings. But, he pointed out, mere legislation would not end the menace. Equally important, he said, was a change of the mindset.
Explaining the point, he said, if a judge believed honour killing was justified, he could not be expected to give a verdict against an accused. Many people were opposing the legislation on the subject, the president regretted and urged the media to play its role in mobilizing public opinion in favour of the proposed bill.
PERKS FOR OFFICIALS: President Musharraf strongly defended the perks allowed to officials, saying these were necessary to enable them to perform their duties honestly.
He said officials, even of the rank of a lieutenant-general, were not getting more than Rs22,000 a month, which was much below their requirements. He said withdrawal of the perks would be justifiable if these were monetized and officials were given a lump sum in six digits.
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