May 28, 2007	Monday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 11, 1428

WASHINGTON, May 27: Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Chairman General Ehsan ul Haq has assured US policy-makers and think-tank experts that the government was in control of the situation and there were no Al Qaeda strongholds in Pakistan’s tribal territory.

Gen Ehsan gave these assurances in private meetings with senior US officials in Washington this week as well as at a larger meeting at a local think-tank where he addressed a select gathering of US policy-makers, academics and media representatives.

Gen Ehsan faced several pointed questions at this gathering, which included US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher, former US ambassadors to Pakistan Wendy Chamberlain and Robert Oakley and several senior Pentagon officials.

Most of the questions related to the situation along the Pak-Afghan border, focusing particularly on Islamabad’s efforts to control militancy in Waziristan.

Gen Ehsan told the audience that Pakistan had successfully thwarted militants’ efforts to expand their influence in Waziristan and that there was no militant stronghold in that area or anywhere inside Pakistan’s borders.

Some questioners disagreed with his suggestion, arguing that the intensity of the resistance Pakistan faced in those areas showed that the militants were strong.

Gen Ehsan said that Pakistan has been the victim of terrorism since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and had remained steadfast in its opposition to terrorism. He urged the international community to address the root cause of terrorism, which is the denial of people’s basic rights in places like Kashmir and Palestine.

An overwhelming sense of deprivation and widespread abject poverty, he said, also contributed to terrorism.

He said that the problem of terrorism must be addressed as a package in which the military option should only be used at a limited scale to create the enabling environment for a comprehensive solution.

Gen Ehsan assured the audiences that Pakistan has already taken all necessary steps to secure its borders and prevent proliferation of weapons.

Reports in the US media often claim that if the internal situation deteriorates, extremists can gain access to Pakistan’s nuclear weapons and hand them over to terrorists. Almost every senior Pakistani official who visits Washington rejects such fears as unfounded and assures the US that Pakistan’s nuclear weapons are in safe hands.

The general, who leaves for home on Monday after a weeklong visit to the US, also had individual meetings with senior US officials, including Secretary of Defence Robert M. Gates and General Peter Pace, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.