ISLAMABAD - Holding the US policies main factor behind the instability in South Asia, Advisor to the Prime Minister Sartaj Aziz hoped that the US administration would review its role in the region and would help achieve desired goals of bringing lasting peace.
Winding up discussion on an adjournment motion moved by Mushahid Hussain Sayed about the US President’s remarks that instability will continue for decades in Pakistan, Aziz said that the government has taken a number of decisive steps on the internal and the external fronts to meet the security challenges.
Sartaj Aziz pointed out that operation Zarb-e-Azb in the tribal areas and operation against criminals in Karachi have helped improve the overall security situation in the country.
On the external front, the advisor said the country’s policy of non-interference in the matters of other countries has contributed to improve relations with Afghanistan and India.
He said that US had created holy warriors in tribal areas during the Afghan Jihad and soon after the dismemberment of Russia it left the region which had contributed decades of instability in Pakistan and the whole region.
The advisor further said, “We have decided that we are not going to indulge in fighting other countries’ wars now, and this policy is being pursued vigorously by the government.”
“Pakistan has also taken a strong stance against terrorism. Operation Zarb-e-Azb in tribal areas and the operation against criminals in Karachi have helped improve the internal security situation of the country,” he said.
In his address to State of Union, the US President Obama had warned, “Instability will continue for decades in many parts of the world – in the Middle East, in Afghanistan and Pakistan, in parts of central America, Africa and Asia.”
Obama had also identified a link between militancy and instability and warned that some unstable regions might become safe havens for terrorists.
Aziz had reacted to the statement the very next day and termed Obama’s predictions as distant from ground realities.