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FATA will be incorporated in NWFP, says Musharraf

LAHORE: President Gen Pervez Musharraf has said that the Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA) will be amalgamated into the NWFP after Taliban and Al Qaeda elements are eliminated from the region.

In an interview with ARY television aired on Wednesday, Gen Musharraf said the government had started work towards this end in 2000 with the consent of tribal elders, who welcomed this step.

“We should have amalgamated FATA into the NWFP province much earlier. We had the same idea when our forces entered the area,” he said.

The president said the US had concerns about the Al Qadea presence in the tribal areas and that was why Washington had been pressing Pakistan to do more. He expressed reservations on a bill in the US Congress that seeks to link military aid to Pakistan with the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.

“This bill is against our sacrifices in the war on terror. The US should be thankful to Pakistan rather than putting restrictions on us. I am against this bill.”

Gen Musharraf said people sitting in Pakistan undoubtedly planned the September 11 attacks in the US and were still planning more attacks. These elements are trying to spread “Talibanisation” in Pakistan, which would be disastrous and take the country backwards, he said.

“These elements want to impose their brand of Islam on us but we don’t want that Islam that takes us towards backwardness,” he said. “We have to save our society both from Talibanisation and Westernisation and adopt the moderate path.” He said some people in Pakistan misunderstood modernisation, which simply meant providing better facilities and living standard.

The president said Al Qaeda and Taliban had moved to Pakistan from Afghanistan and hurt Pakistani society. The Taliban are fighting in Afghanistan but are also getting support from sympathisers in Pakistan. “The problem lies in both Afghanistan and Pakistan but the major problem is in Afghanistan and we have clearly told the Afghan government that we have done enough and now it is your turn to do something substantial,” he said.

To a question about his uniform and the presidential elections, Gen Musharraf said a two-thirds majority in parliament had allowed him to continue as president in uniform till a certain time, and added that the presidential election would be according to the Constitution. daily times monitor

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