Pak army chief briefs PM on militancy

ISLAMABAD - Pakistani premier Yousaf Raza Gilani was briefed by the country’s army chief Wednesday as part of his new government’s efforts to find political solutions to Islamic militancy, a statement said.
Army chief General Ashfaq Kayani met Gilani along with key coalition partners and ministers in Islamabad, two days after the ministers were sworn in and just over a week after the premier was elected by parliament.
The new government is led by opponents of the embattled US ally President Pervez Musharraf, including the party of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, which trounced Musharraf’s allies in elections in February.
An official statement said Kayani “presented all the efforts it (the army) had undertaken to stabilise the situation” in Pakistan’s troubled tribal areas bordering Afghanistan and in the restive northwestern Swat Valley.
Gilani and his coalition partners ordered the briefing “in order to come up with political policy guidelines to address the menace of terrorism and extremism, through a comprehensive strategy based on political engagement, economic development and backed by a creditable military element,” it added.
Those present at the meeting included Bhutto’s widower Asif Ali Zardari, the de facto head of her Pakistan People’s Party, and former premier Nawaz Sharif, whose party is the second biggest in the coalition.
Gilani is a leading member of Bhutto’s party.
Pakistan has been a bulwark in US-led efforts to tackle Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants since Musharraf joined the so-called “war on terror” after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
Gilani said on Saturday that militancy was the new government’s biggest priority, but stressed the need for political as well as military solutions amid a wave of suicide bombings in Pakistan.
These include reforming the British colonial-era laws that govern the tribal areas, an ethnic Pashtun-dominated region that US officials have branded a safe haven for Osama bin Laden’s terror network.