ISLAMABAD, June 6: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Tuesday rejected views expressed in recent interviews by outgoing Pakistan ambassador in the US Gen (retd) Jehangir Karamat, terming them his personal views and said the number of regular troops in Balochistan was low and paramilitary forces were engaged in most areas.

Speaking at a news conference at the Prime Minister’s House, Prime Minister Aziz said the deployment of 70,000 troops along Afghanistan border was essential to stop cross-border infiltrations and bring stability and peace in these areas.

Gen. Karamat in his recent press interviews had “advised” the government to minimise the armed forces’ stay in Balochistan and tribal areas besides urging it to hold “fair and free” general elections in 2007.

Prime Minister Aziz said the situation in Balochistan was fast returning to normalcy as people banished from certain areas were returning to their home towns while the government was providing maximum development funds to reduce the Baloch people’s grievances.

Similarly, he said, the government was making efforts to bring tribal areas on a par with other areas by enhancing budgetary allocations.

He contested the opposition’s objection against the recently approved $6.5 billion World Bank loan, saying that it was well within the limits of the fiscal responsibility law and assured that parliament and people would be taken into confidence when the loan matured in the next four years.

Referring to the ongoing debate on Hudood laws, he said: “As I have always said, it is a sensitive issue and we will take parliament and people into confidence over the issue”.

He was upbeat about his seventh successive budget as finance minister, and said he had been helped by media and feedback from various segments of society.

He said that he had received credible reports about large-scale sale of pulses in utility stores all over the country, adding that government servants and pensioners had welcomed various incentives. Serving women had also welcomed lowering of taxes.

Mr Aziz was confident that price magistrates would effectively implement government’s recommended prices. He said that the new system would work in tandem with the price inspection mechanism already in place under district governments.

He said that duty-free import of tractors would usher in a ‘tractor revolution’, benefiting farmers and help increase the agricultural yields.

He said that the government would ensure the supply of pulses at low prices in the market.