Pakistan at watershed of its history: DG ISPR

RAWALPINDI:  Director General of Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major General Asif Ghafoor Thursday said Pakistan was standing at the watershed of its history and prudent decisions were needed to take the country forward.

“We are at the watershed of our history beyond where the period could be either very good or otherwise. We (the nation) have to take the decision where to take it,” he said at a news briefing here at ISPR.

Ghafoor said Pakistan would have to resuscitate its economy and everyone would have to play their role for a prosperous country.

The DG ISPR said Pakistan had internal and external fault lines, which were exploited by the enemies. Talking about neighboring India, Ghafoor expressed concern over killing of civilian during India’s continued ceasefire violations. The ongoing year saw the highest number of civilian killings.

“At least 55 civilians lost their lives, while 300 others suffered injuries due to Indian ceasefire violations,” he added.

He said Pakistan could not respond to India in the same way as it did not suit a professional army and also because Kashmiri brothers were living on the other side of the border. Pakistan, he said, believed in talks for a durable peace but India was continuously backing off from negotiations.

Ghafoor however, expressed the hope that the situation would change after upcoming elections in the neighbouring country.

Talking about the War on Terror, Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor said it had been mostly fought in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). He noted that terrorist incidents had significantly decreased in the country.

“In 2013, on average around seven to eight terrorist incidents were taking place every month. But now in 2018, this average has decreased.”

Comparing Balochistan to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA, he said in FATA, which was three per cent of the country’s geography, over 200,000 troops had been deployed against around 65,000-70,000 in Balochistan, which was 43 per cent of the country’s geography and six per cent of the population.

“After the Army Chief’s visit to Quetta, we’ve changed the deployment of troops in Balochistan. Initially, our forces and headquarters were in Quetta, but now according to the geography we’ve split them to different sectors and done a readjustment,” he added.

The DG ISPR said terrorist incidents as well as abduction cases had decreased in Balochistan. The good thing was that Ferraris were surrendering themselves there. In the past three years, over 2,000 of them had surrendered.

Talking about the law and order situation in Karachi, he said it had improved in the last few years. In 2017, no terrorist incident took place in the city, while in 2018, only two. The security situation had improved a lot and the credit for that went to the Rangers, he added.

He said the crime rate had also decreased in the mega city. “The situation in the city will improve further in the coming days,” he added.