KARACHI, May 25: General Pervez Musharraf on Friday raised a big question of the need for deweaponising society and eliminating terrorism and extremism, but his team in Sindh felt it was a difficult task.
President Musharraf, who was on his first visit to Karachi since the May 12 bloodbath in a bid to ease ethnic and political tensions which are still simmering after almost two weeks, appealed to the people that they should not let the May 12 incident happen again and it should not be allowed to take “an ethnic colour as it was purely a political matter”.
He was addressing elite of the city, bankers, industrialists and notables, including Pashtun representatives, at the Sindh Chief Minister House. Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad Khan, Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim, Federal Information Minister Mohammad Ali Durrani, Political Affairs Minister Engineer Ameer Muqam, MQM Parliamentary Party leader in the National Assembly Dr Farooq Sattar, Provincial Home Adviser Waseem Akhtar and senior officials were present.
According to sources, General Musharraf tried to bridge the gap between estranged ruling coalition partners and convening of the meeting at the CM House was indicative of the misgivings that still existed, though both sides were maintaining a cautious approach.
Gen Musharraf expressed sympathy with families of the deceased and announced Rs300,000 for each of them on behalf of the federal government.
He felt that the strength of police and Rangers personnel deployed on the streets of Karachi on May 12 was not enough to control the situation. However, he claimed that a major loss was controlled because of the separation of different political parties at about five-six points by the law-enforcement personnel.
But according to the sources, the thrust of Gen Musharraf’s discourse was on extremism and terrorism and referred to the legacy of the Kalashnikov culture which infested Pakistan since the 1979 Afghan war.
In a meeting with a cross section of the people, President Musharraf expressed satisfaction over the return of peace and normalcy in Karachi after the May 12 carnage and claimed that conspiracy to plunge the city and the province into another ethnic bloodbath had been foiled.
The president termed extremism and terrorism an “unfortunate reality”, and referring to the Lal Masjid standoff, he said they “have lost the way. “We are trying to tackle them as there are 2,500 women and 1,500 men inside the mosque with explosives and weapons.”
He said that it was not difficult to take an action, but this would result in loss of lives. He said he would only tell the Lal Masjid administration to take a right path and avoid causing harm to the country.
The president was of the view that extremists were trying to impose their thoughts on enlightened minds.
The president referred to successful operations against Al Qaeda in Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Gujrat, Faisalabad and elsewhere and claimed that the group was now on the run.
He said Al Qaeda was not there in Balochistan. Taliban were there but they come from Afghanistan and efforts were being made to undo the support they were getting from here, he added.
The president said that peace had prevailed in Balochistan which earlier had 63 farari camps, adding that only two to three camps were left which too would be eliminated.
Gen Musharraf accused the opposition of politicising the reference against the chief justice. “Some elements are trying to give it an ethnic colour which is very dangerous and harmful trend,” he added.
