January 02, 2009	Friday	Muharram 04, 1430

ISLAMABAD, Jan 1: President Asif Ali Zardari said on Thursday the government had to defeat militants to restore peace and stability in the country.

“The whole nation is a victim of militancy and terrorism and people should join hands for fighting the menace regardless of partisan considerations,” the president said in a meeting with representatives of affected people from Bajaur.

President Zardari said Pakistan had been attacked by militants and it was imperative to defeat them for peace and stability in the country.

He said the government was engaged in a comprehensive dialogue with the international community to defeat the terrorists and to rebuild the tribal areas.

The president said the government was aware of tribal people’s misery and had devised plans for building reconstruction opportunity zones (ROZs) in the tribal areas to speed up development and provide jobs to the youth.

The government, he said, had also made plans for providing compensation to terror victims.

The minister for Kashmir Affairs, Qamaruzzaman Kaira, Minister for Privatization Syed Naveed Qamar, Minister for Frontier Regions Najmuddin Khan, Finance Adviser Shaukat Tareen and Senator Nilofar Bakhtiar attended the meeting.

Rehman Malik, the prime minister’s adviser on interior, told the delegation that the writ of the government had already been established in four tehsils of Bajaur Agency, expressing hope that Charmang and Mamond tehsils would also be under control of the government by the end of this month.