Re: Punjab not to allow IDP camps
IDPs free to go anywhere in the country: Gilani
Saturday, 23 May, 2009 | 09:49 PM PST |
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LAHORE: The internally displaced persons (IDPs) are Pakistanis and they are free to go anywhere in the country, said Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani here on Saturday. Talking to newsmen after inaugurating Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan Medical and Dental College at Sheikh Zayed Hospital here, the PM said: ‘The IDPs are our respectable brothers and sisters and honourable guests, they are free to go to any part of the country.’
Gilani said the IDPs were victims of terrorism and the government was making all-out efforts to provide them every possible help.
‘We would leave no stone unturned to provide relief to them. It is not only the government, the entire nation, together with the world community, owns the IDPs and all of them are determined to do everything for them,’ the PM said.
The government, he said, had evolved a comprehensive relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction plan and all the IDPs were being registered for the purpose.
Speaking about the Swat operation, he said: ‘It was the best planned action, keeping in view all the humanitarian and military aspects, and is being carried out with precision by the military, in collaboration with the civilian government and backing of the entire nation. That is why, it is bound to succeed.’
Regarding Friday’s blast at Peshawar, the PM said that such barbaric acts were expected as a result of the action against the militants. The provincial chief ministers, he said, had been directed to beef up security and ensure pre-emptive measures to avoid such incidents.
‘The nation is fully determined to stamp out terrorism, and it cannot be held back through such cowardly acts,’ he said.
Indicating Swat-like operations in other troubles parts of the country, the prime minister said that the maintenance of law and order fell in preview of the provincial governments and if their writ was challenged in any part, they could requisition the military for assistance.
Prime Minister Gilani said attacks by US drones on Pakistani territory were ‘counter-productive’ because they undermined Islamabad’s efforts to isolate militants.
‘As far as drone attacks are concerned, the entire world has the same stand as Pakistan has that drone attacks are counter-productive,’ Gilani told reporters in Lahore.
‘If the drone attacks had been useful, then we would have ourselves supported them.’ Gilani said missile strikes by US drones on the northwestern tribal areas bordering Afghanistan were in fact strengthening the militants.
‘Our policy is to isolate militants from the local tribes, but drone attacks unite them,’ Gilani said, according to AFP.](“http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php”)