By SPA
Islamabad : Pakistan s ambassador to the United States Mahmud Ali Durrani says Pakistan is strongly combating terrorism threat in its tribal region bordering Afghanistan and the militants are now under growing pressure.
The militants are under pressure as there has been a firm action and there has been no agreement of any kind, Durrani told the reporters in Washington, according to a message received in Islamabad.
The ambassador said Pakistan s long-term holistic strategy will have military, economic and political components to deal with the problem of extremism comprehensively. In this respect, he referred to more than $ 2 billion tribal region s sustainable development plan to which the US also has committed assistance over a period of five years.
Citing recent effective actions in Swat, he said the people of the area supported the military in counterterrorism efforts to clear the area of militants. He reported relative stability in North and South Waziristan tribal agencies in the wake of recent successful operations.
Asked to assess the success of Pakistan s counterterrorism approach in terms of its being effective over the long haul, the ambassador said that the situation remains dynamic at the moment and referring to external factors observed Pakistan also suffers from blowback effect from both Afghanistan and Iraq.
Durrani voiced satisfaction with the overall state of Pakistan-US relationship in various fields.
I think our relationship with the administration is okay, we have no problems, he stated and added that there may have been occasional minor disagreements but declared that by and large the two governments have had a stable relationship.
The two allies, he said, are working to improve their counterterrorism cooperation. In this context, he welcomed former US CENTCOM chief Gen Anthony Zinni s statement in which he argued strongly for US supporting Pakistani military with equipment and technical help in combating terrorism effectively along rugged Afghan border.
On addressing perceptions in Congress and the US media, the ambassador said, the Pakistan embassy in Washington has been endeavoring to project Pakistan s position on various issues to the American lawmakers and also interacting with the media.
He held out the government s pledge to fair and transparent poll in February 18 parliamentary elections and stressed that a series of measures put in place by the Election Commission make it very difficulty for anybody to employ rigging or any other foul practices.