Zardari would like to be remembered for creating a Pakistan free of militants

LONDON - Pakistan President Asif Zardari has said he would like to be remembered in Pakistan for creating a country free of militancy.

“I would love to be remembered for creating a Pakistan where militancy - I know it can’t totally be diminished - is defeated,” The Telegraph quoted Zardari, as saying.

A day earlier Zardari gained important support when Army Chief General Ashfaq Kiyani said that the immediate internal threat of Taliban militancy was greater than any “external threat.” Diplomats took comfort that Zardari appeared to speak for the most important power brokers in Pakistan, the paper says.

Zardari has broken with decades of strategic policy by declaring that the military will turn its guns on extremist groups it formerly supported as proxy forces in its battles with India, the report says.

The army had given its backing in recent days to Zardari’s shift from seeing India as the foremost threat to the country towards the domestic danger posed by radical Muslim groups that hold sway in large parts of Pakistan, it adds. akistan has launched simultaneous operations in Swat valley and two neighbouring districts after Taliban militants and foreign trained terrorists mounted a series of audacious attacks in its major cities, the report says.

The fight has become the defining issue for Zardari since his Pakistan People’s Party spearheaded efforts to oust the former military leader, Gen Pervez Musharraf, last year.

“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 that cuts across borders,” he added. (ANI)