PESHAWAR, Dec 21: President Gen Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday said the government had successfully handled the issue of foreign militants in the South Waziristan Agency. "The foreign terrorists had threatened the national integrity and if we had not taken strong action , they would have created problems for us," he said in a speech at the golden jubilee function of Khyber Medical College.

The president said that Pakistan was not a 'soft' country which would allow anyone to do anything he liked. The military operation in Wana, he stressed, was not against local tribesmen, rather it targeted foreign militants and their collaborators.

He said tribal people had shed their blood for the cause of the country at the hour of need and their loyalty to Pakistan was beyond doubt. About events which led to the Wana operation, he described as ridiculous an allegation that the military action had been launched at the behest of the US and said that the masterminds of terrorist acts committed in the country had roots in Wana.

"This is not for the USA. We are doing it for Pakistan, we have to curb the menace of terrorism." Gen Musharraf said that both political and military means were used to flush out terrorists from tribal areas and applauded the services of the NWFP governor in these efforts.

The government, he said, had successfully countered the four major misperceptions about Pakistan and today the country was not being blamed by the world for patronizing terrorism in Afghanistan and cross-border terrorism in Kashmir, nuclear proliferation and promoting an extremist and militant society.

Pakistan, he said, had a major role to play in the Muslim world and in international arena and added that the Ummah was looking towards it for guidance and proper direction.

Referring to his concept of enlightened moderation, President Musharraf said: "Pakistan is an ideological state as envisioned by our forefathers and created for the Muslims of the subcontinent where minorities would enjoy equal rights with majority communities."

He said the vast majority of people were moderates; they observed all the fundamentals of Islam and had strong feelings and emotions about their religion. He pointed out that Islam, apart from performing rituals, also laid great emphasis on haqooqul ebad and the character of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) revealed how important haqooqul ebad were. It was the Prophet's (pbuh) character that attracted multitude of people to embrace Islam.

The president called for getting rid of the trend of branding fellow faithful as good or bad Muslims. "We are nobody to pass religious edicts on the belief of other people.

I am as good a Muslim as anybody else." He said "he had the privilege of visiting Ka'aba five times and on one such occasion I was allowed to climb the roof of the Khana Ka'aba which was unprecedented in history."

The president took serious notice of militant organizations like Jaish, Sipah, Lashkar, etc., and said there was only one army in the country that was Pakistan Army which was strong enough to defend borders in case of any foreign aggression.

He called for keeping a check on those mosques which were spreading sectarian and religious hatred by using loudspeakers and directed for stern action against those who were printing and distributing literature fanning sectarianism.