ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani said his biggest mistake was not reinstating the judges at the beginning of his term in office.
“I should have restored the judiciary in the beginning,” he said, adding, “That is my biggest mistake. Then we would not have wasted our energies on each other. It would have been better if we had concentrated on the people of Pakistan,” Gilani made these comments in an interview to the Financial Times. —Online
INP adds: The Pakistan government has defended its decision not to launch new offensives in the country’s border regions, arguing that Islamabad needed to focus on holding territory captured from Taliban militants in the past year.
He said this in spite of encouragement by the US and the Nato military alliance to squeeze Taliban militants from the Pakistani side of the border with Afghanistan.
Gilani said one of his priorities was working on an “exit strategy” for military forces that had taken swathes of territory held by Taliban militants in Malakand, Swat and South Waziristan.
Military action had not been sufficiently followed up by development assistance to remove the threat of another advance of the Taliban insurgency.
“We have to hold areas first and we should not be in a rush. We have to consolidate,” said Gilani. “We have to hold them first. Then it’s up to the military and political leadership to think about how to proceed and when to go to other areas.”
Gilani said Pakistan had a pivotal role in bringing stability to Afghanistan. He agreed with claims by some senior Pakistani officials that Islamabad was enjoying some of the greatest leverage over the international community for decades.
“Pakistan is the only country that can help Afghanistan,” he said. “You cannot achieve stability in Afghanistan without Pakistan. Therefore, Pakistan is in a unique position.”
Aides to the prime minister said they had been encouraged by a visit last week to Islamabad by President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan. Islamabad has pledged assistance in efforts to reconcile some Taliban elements with Kabul.
Gilani acknowledged success in arresting “high-value targets”, such as Mulla Baradar. But he warned against expanding the military front in spite of rare unity in Pakistan, with “the civil and political leadership and military leadership on the same page”.
In what he described as a “guerrilla war”, militants were now moving into some of Pakistan’s most densely populated areas, such as Punjab, after being dislodged from their mountain strongholds.
“When you are controllingtheir strongholds, they are moving towards settled areas,” he said. “In settled areas, they feel more secure because of the population. In the strongholds they have been taken over and now they are on the run.”
At a strategic dialogue meeting with the US in Washington next week, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Pakistan’s foreign minister, is likely to appeal to Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, for more economic assistance, intelligence co-operation and military equipment. Pakistan is seeking upwards of $15bn from foreign donors.
Khurshid Kasuri, Pakistan’s former foreign minister, said the participation of General Ashfaq Kayani, the Army chief, in the talks was a firm indication of where power resided in a country with an inconsistent civilian administration. To a question about Pak-US relations, Gilani said we are moving in the right direction that we have to remove the trust deficit and we are upgrading our relationship.
He said the strategic dialogue would be to the benefit of both of the countries as we can work jointly on one issue and that is the war against terrorism and extremism. “They will be discussing various issues like economic issues, defence, intelligence sharing, health, education, power sector, energy, environment and the social sector. We want to have a very meaningful and result-oriented meeting in the United States”.
Gilani said the US secretary of state for defence will be present and from the Pakistani side there will be the Army chief and they will be discussing all the issues related to security and defence of both countries.
He said Pakistan is in the middle of a war, it has the resolve to fight against extremism and terrorism, but lacks capacity. “We want the capacity to be enhanced of the law-enforcement agencies, so that we are in a position to take on this challenge. We expect the world community to come forward and help Pakistan at this critical stage,” he stressed.
The prime minister said through the Kerry Lugar Bill, the financial assistance should be expedited so that we are able to win the hearts and minds of the people. That is extremely important. He said there are outstanding dues of $2 billion plus against the United States.
He said as they are turning to a third year of government hopefully, we will be able to give relief to the public. In the energy sector, the US wants to strengthen the capacity to overhaul or to upgrade the existing system. They have picked a few projects, he said.
About economy and taxation, the prime minister said the government is going for the VAT and to enhance the tax base in order to improve the economy which has started picking up. Asked about dialogue with India, Gilani said Pakistan wants to maintain very good relations with all neighbours, including India. He said our enemy is terrorism and we have to focus on that. We want the world to concentrate so that with India we resolve all our core issues, including Jammu and Kashmir and water. He said he wanted composite dialogue with India but meaningful dialogue.
He believed that the Kashmir issue can be resolved when there is a composite dialogue and they discuss all the core issues. To a question, Gilani said Pakistan is in a position to help the world for peace, prosperity and progress. Pakistan is strategically in a position to help the world, and, therefore, the world should also help Pakistan. This is a God-gifted opportunity for the world to help Pakistan to achieve this target of (eliminating) this menace of extremism and terrorism.
Source: http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=27836
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