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What exactly is happening in NWFP, asks PML(N)

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League (N) upped the ante against the government’s ongoing operations in a tribal area on its north-west frontier, and against President Pervez Musharraf, as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher met party leader Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday.

Chaudhary Nisar Ali Khan, a senior leader of the party who was present at the meeting in Mr. Sharif’s home in Raiwind, Lahore, told journalists that despite being a coalition partner, the PML(N) had not been consulted on the operation.

“First we were told that it was only going to be negotiations. Then, one fine day, we hear the Pakistan Army has been given charge to carry out operations. The next day the government says, no there will be no operations, and it’s the Interior Ministry in charge. Shortly after that, there is an operation. They say it is not a military operation, it is by paramilitary troops. They say they are targeting criminal gangs. We want to know what exactly is happening, who is involved, who is being targeted,” he told reporters outside Mr. Sharif’s home after the meeting the U.S. official.

The operations in Khyber agency neighbouring Peshawar are continuing, and the Interior Ministry said they would continue until objectives are met.

Paramilitary troops conducting the operation have met with little resistance so far.

On Tuesday, troops blew up the headquarters of the Lashkar-i-Islam in Bara, a town in Khyber, and arrested three men affiliated to the organisation. They also freed a man who had been abducted by the group.

Mr. Khan said Mr. Nawaz Sharif had conveyed in his meeting with Mr. Boucher that the government should use the path of negotiations as it had earlier promised, as the use of force in the region all these years had not brought any positive result.

Mr. Sharif also told the U.S. official that the retired General Musharraf was the biggest obstacle to the transition to democracy in Pakistan. According to Mr. Khan, the two also discussed restoration of judiciary, and the PML(N) leader is said to have told Mr. Boucher that if the U.S. could not assist in the restoration, it should not stand in the way either.

Meanwhile, according to a Pakistan People’s Party press statement, its leader Asif Ali Zardari, told the Socialist International Conference in Athens that Pakistan stood with rest of the world in wanting to wipe out terrorism and extremism.

But he said the international community must help in the socio-economic development of Pakistan so that it could be turned into a “successful model of modernity” for the 1.3 billion Muslims of the world.

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