PESHAWAR, Feb 26: Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao has said that the federal government can reconsider ban on some of the sectarian outfits if their leaders cooperate with Islamabad in creating sectarian harmony in the country for which the centre is also formulating a strategy.

"The decision regarding organizations banned for fuelling sectarian hatred can be reconsidered if their leaders cooperate with the government in its efforts to create harmony among people belonging to different schools of thoughts," Mr Sherpao told journalists here on Saturday following his meeting with Peshawar's business community at the Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI).

He, however, said that the decision about outfits banned because of their involvement in acts of terrorism could not be reverted and the government would continue monitoring the activities of such proscribed entities and their leaders.

He said the government was facilitating a debate between different sects at various levels, including electronic media, to achieve harmony among people belonging to different schools of thoughts.

Earlier, in his meeting with the SCCI members, Mr Sherpao said the interior ministry was busy formulating a code of conduct to create harmony among people belonging to different sects on a permanent basis.

A briefing on creating religious and sectarian harmony would also be given to the National Security Council in its forthcoming meeting.

"Security agencies did well to ensure peace during the first ten days of Muharram and now we are facilitating interaction between ulema and leaders of different sects," the minister said.

The government was attaching importance to maintenance of peace because it was vital to attracting local and foreign investment. Without investment, economic prosperity was hard to achieve, he added.

In this respect, he claimed, the government had effectively broken the terrorist network of Al Qaeda and its offshoots, responsible for acts of subversion in the country, had also been dealt with effectively.

"We have adopted a proactive approach to thwart attempts at destabilizing peace by engaging small groups of terrorists which had cropped up following the break-up of Al Qaeda network," claimed Mr Sherpao.

In reply to a question, he said none of the leading Al Qaeda figures was present in Pakistan.

He claimed that security agencies, in recent past, had pre-empted several minor and major terrorism attacks which could have resulted in fatal losses in different parts of the country had the government not acted in advance.

"We did not provide information to the media about our successful operations against terrorists to avoid causing harassment among the masses. In some cases arrests were also made," said the interior minister.

He added: "Though the arrested terrorists do not include any of those wanted by international organizations or other countries, the capture of some of them is of great value to our own security and intelligence agencies."

He said the interior ministry had recently sent a letter to provincial governments, asking them to effectively stop crimes like car-snatching and kidnapping for ransom "as such offences could become a source of funding for terrorism".

"Investigations carried out recently in certain criminal cases involving bank robbery, car snatching and kidnapping for ransom in Swat, Karachi and Quetta revealed that they were aimed at generating funds for sponsoring acts of terrorism," he said.

"This also indicates that their (terrorists') network of receiving funds has been smashed," Mr Sherpao claimed.

These crimes were needed to be effectively dealt with by the provinces as well as federal security agencies to ensure peace and security for the business community and the people at large. This would make environment conducive to investment - both local and foreign, he said.

The minister urged the business community to come forward and make investment in profitable sectors. "Local investment is crucial to improving any country's credibility without which foreign investors remain shy," he said.