ISLAMABAD, Jan 10: President Gen Pervez Musharraf has said that Pakistan is facing no 'external threat' and is trying to resolve disputes with India to achieve a durable peace in the region.
Speaking at the concluding session of the fifth National Security Workshop at the National Defence Collage here on Monday, the president said that efforts were being made to make Pakistan a moderate and enlightened Islamic welfare state as envisioned by the founding fathers of the country.
Gen Musharraf also spoke on the geo-political environment and its impact on Pakistan and said that by the grace of God, Pakistan today faced no external threat. Expressing his deep sorrow over the recent incident in Gilgit, the president said that the government would not allow extremists to take the society hostage.
A vast majority of Pakistanis are peace-loving and moderate who need to stand up and play their rightful role to neutralize extremist elements who are in minority. The president dwelt at length on the interplay of various elements of national power such as diplomacy, economy, defence and domestic environment.
He enumerated Pakistan's diplomatic gains over the past few years due to its enhanced stature at the international level. "From a nearly isolated country, Pakistan is now seen as a country that can play an important role in international politics," he added.
Speaking about economy, the president highlighted various measures taken for the revival of economy and said that the focus of the government now was on making use of the macroeconomic gains to alleviate poverty and provide benefit to the masses.
In this regard, President Musharraf outlined measures that had been initiated to eradicate poverty in the country, which included sustainable economic growth, development projects in the rural and urban areas and targeted interventions through micro- finance and Zakat.
He said it was unfortunate that from 1988 to 1999 there were no major projects to show for the Rs887 billion that had been spent on the Public Sector Development Programmes (PSDPs).
Gen Musharraf said that compared to that period, there were 16 major projects in the infrastructure, irrigation, ports, water reservoirs etc that were visible on ground with an allocation of approximately Rs300 billion in the PSDP during the past five years.
The president underlined the importance of domestic environment which had a direct bearing on national security. He emphasized the importance of national security workshops which provided an opportunity to participants to understand the perspective of national security first-hand.
He said he was delighted to note that politicians from both ruling and opposition parties and other important members of the civil society were participating in the workshop.
"With such broad-spectrum representation and a good gender mix, the National Security Workshop is a good forum to develop understanding between various segments of the society on issues of national importance," he said.
The president's address was followed by a question- answer session. He also distributed certificates among those who attended the workshop. The Senate chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee chairman, federal ministers, ministers of state, parliamentarians and other senior government functionaries and participants of the national defence and Armed Forces War Course were present on the occasion.
