While the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) government has made up its mind to continue with the Musharraf regime's policy on the war on terror, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif and his lieutenants are meeting experts on the tribal areas to pave the way for a negotiated solution to the problem, said a news report. Sharif and his party men think that if this situation is not controlled it would engulf the whole country, the report published in the English language daily The News said. The PML-N chief said that his party is not in favour of any military solution to the tribal area problem. He said that the US should be told to help Pakistan to uproot the menace of terrorism by getting into meaningful dialogue with the concerned parties. On the contrary, a key government source said that following his visit to the United States, President Asif Ali Zardari has made it clear to his key party and government advisers that Musharraf's policy on the US-led war on terror would continue without any major deviation. The source quoted the President as saying that if Pakistan distances itself from the US war on terror and there is no presence of US military in the region, Taliban would possibly take over Islamabad. To give Musharraf's policy a new look, the on-going campaign to rename it as “Pakistan's own war” was approved and launched, the source said. The new argument is that Pakistan was facing the menace of terrorism even before 9/11 though the tribal area insurgency, which is now spreading to the settled areas of the Frontier province, is generally seen as the fallout of Musharraf's war on terror. Information Minister Sherry Rehman, who has told the in-camera session of parliament that the on-going war against terror is Pakistan's own war, is also quoted by a source to have informed the MPs that Pakistan needs the Americans as much as they need Pakistan. She, however, did not give any hint of deviating from Musharraf's policy. While the government does not intend to distance itself from the US war on terror, it does admit that some foreign powers through their intelligence agencies, including those of the United States, Israel and India, are also contributing to destabilise the situation in the tribal areas and in the NWFP. The Director General Military Operations, it is said, did admit the same in the briefing that he recently gave to the MPs. A top authority in the Frontier province endorsed the same in a background briefing to the media persons in Islamabad. While the government still does not want to distance itself from Washington's controversial war on terror, it seeks the support of the opposition parties particularly the PML-N to get a choice resolution passed. Though the PML-N is not prepared to endorse what the PPP wants, the PML-N is reluctant to criticise the US war on terror despite having serious reservations. A PML-N source said that the party does not want to be linked with Taliban as already the US and the West portray Nawaz Sharif as sympathiser of Taliban. The PML-N knows that the party does not have the blessings of the influential western capitals, which are betting on Zardari and the PPP for its pro-Washington policies. __
