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In a major policy announcement President Asif Ali Zardari said Pakistan has broken away from decades of strategic policy by declaring the military will turn its guns on extremist groups it formerly supported as proxy forces in its battles with India.
Leading dailies The Nation, Dawn and The News among other newspapers quoting Zardari's interview given to The Daily Telegraph of London said that operations would in the future target the figures who were the military's "strategic assets"." I don't think anybody in the establishment supports them any more," he said. "I think everybody has become wiser than this," he added.
"Military operations are all across the board against any insurgent, whether in Karachi, Lahore or whether he is in any part of Pakistan," said Zardari. "My problem is terror. I have focused myself on terror. The PPP has focused itself against the extremist mindset. Terror is a regional problem, it cuts across borders. "I would love to be remembered for creating a Pakistan where militancy - I know it can't totally be diminished - is defeated."
A day earlier Zardari gained important support when Army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani said the "immediate internal threat" of the Taliban militancy was greater than any "external threat" - a code for India. Diplomats took comfort that Zardari appeared to speak for the most important power brokers in Pakistan.
Gestures of goodwill towards India allied to a campaign to end militants' influence have attracted criticism, but for the moment, his opponents are at bay. "It rankles the small mind," he said.
Leading dailies The Nation, Dawn and The News among other newspapers quoting Zardari's interview given to The Daily Telegraph of London said that operations would in the future target the figures who were the military's "strategic assets"." I don't think anybody in the establishment supports them any more," he said. "I think everybody has become wiser than this," he added.
"Military operations are all across the board against any insurgent, whether in Karachi, Lahore or whether he is in any part of Pakistan," said Zardari. "My problem is terror. I have focused myself on terror. The PPP has focused itself against the extremist mindset. Terror is a regional problem, it cuts across borders. "I would love to be remembered for creating a Pakistan where militancy - I know it can't totally be diminished - is defeated."
A day earlier Zardari gained important support when Army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani said the "immediate internal threat" of the Taliban militancy was greater than any "external threat" - a code for India. Diplomats took comfort that Zardari appeared to speak for the most important power brokers in Pakistan.
Gestures of goodwill towards India allied to a campaign to end militants' influence have attracted criticism, but for the moment, his opponents are at bay. "It rankles the small mind," he said.
