Winds of change? Pak PM refrains from K-word at WEF

DAVOS: Pakistan prime minister Shaukat Aziz has claimed that terrorism in Pakistan is on the decline due to the determined action taken by the government. ���The number of incidents have reduced dramatically, flow of terrorists have come down,��� he said while speaking at a session in the World Economic Forum.

Mr Aziz said that the declining terrorist activities had resulted in improved economic health of the country. All hotels are occupied, the economy is booming, airlines are full and the country���s economy is on the growth path, he said.

Interestingly, Mr Aziz did not utter a word about India or Kashmir during the entire session and focused himself on his country���s development agenda.

Replying a question about the Taliban chief Osama Bin Laden, the Pakistan prime minister said that his government had no idea where he was. ���The truth is nobody in the world knows where they are (Bin Laden or other Talibani leaders),��� he said.

He said that lack of education and poverty are the reason behind the rise of terrorism. He said that economic development is a must to remove the scourge of terrorism. ���Let me say that the average people recruited by Osama Bin Laden do not read the Commonwealth statements,��� Mr Aziz said.

He said that the root cause of terrorism was feelings of a sense of deprivation, hopelessness, lack of income, human rights violation and the lack of opportunity. He also pointed that terrorist activities are funded by the drugs mafia.

He said that terrorism is not an issue of a particular country. ���It is a global phenomenon, It is a collective problem,��� he added. Mr Aziz said that terrorism was not a scourge linked to a particular faith or religion and it should be tackled at several levels. ���Terrorism is

In support of his view, Mr Aziz cited various examples of terrorism in several countries and regions such as Afghanistan, Lebanon, the Gulf countries, Palestine and Iraq. He also related it to the cross-border

problem in some cases choosing not mention the word India. ���Terrorism is not friend of anybody. Terrorism is not linked to any faith. It is against the religion of Islam,��� he said.