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Thursday, Jul 19, 2007
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Direct battle: Musharraf

Nirupama Subramanian

To seek second term; 16 soldiers killed in N. Waziristan

ISLAMABAD: President Pervez Musharraf declared on Wednesday that Pakistan was now “in direct confrontation” with extremists and militants, but he ruled out the imposition of an emergency and said elections would be held on time.

In an interaction with Editors of Pakistani newspapers, Gen. Musharraf also said he would seek a second term, in uniform, from the sitting Assemblies, and that a purely civilian set-up could not by itself deal with the threat of extremism, according to those who attended the meeting.

“The stage has come when it is a direct battle between forces of extremism and moderation,” he said, adding that a “unified command” was necessary so that the security forces could be used “effectively” to deal with the threat.

The interaction took place as 16 soldiers were killed and 10 injured in North Waziristan when militants fired at a convoy. Another convoy was attacked with an improvised explosive device injuring six persons including one soldier.

An Editor who was at the meeting said Gen. Musharraf appeared confident and in control despite a surge of militant extremism in the north-west that spilled into the capital on Tuesday with a suicide bombing in which the death toll had risen to 17, and the possibility of an adverse verdict by the Supreme Court on Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary’s removal, expected on Thursday or Friday.

Confident posture

“Whether he is genuinely confident or whether he wants to send out that impression, we don’t know, but the fact is that he looked more confident than he did two months ago” during the height of the agitation over the Chief Justice.

Gen. Musharraf did not dwell too much on the judicial crisis, saying only that “the verdict will be out in a couple of days, we will accept whatever it is and move on”.

He told the Editors that the Government could deal with the challenge of Taliban and Al-Qaeda, but it was the “Talibanisation” spreading inward into the “settled” areas of the North West Frontier Province from the tribal areas, that was the challenge.

The way forward, according to him, was to “check and contain” this Talibanisation, and simultaneously, deal with the militancy.

A U.S. intelligence report on Tuesday said that the Al-Qaeda was regrouping in Pakistan’s tribal areas. Gen. Musharraf was dismissive of U.S. charges that Pakistan was not doing enough.

He said two army divisions deployed in districts of NWFP bordering tribal areas would remain until December when better equipped and trained paramilitaries would take over the fight against militants. But he expressed the concern that if the suicide bombings continued, “we are in trouble”.

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