Large areas of Bajaur and Mohmand agencies have been cleared of 'miscreants' and complete government control would be established in the two agencies by the end of December, Frontier Corps (FC) Inspector General Maj Gen Tariq Khan told President Asif Ali Zardari during a briefing on Thursday.
"Large areas of Bajaur and Mohmand agencies have been cleared. The writ of the state will be restored by the end of this month, and both the agencies will come under complete control of the government," he said during the president's meeting with representatives from FATA.
Zardari met the tribal elders for the second day, as part of a series of consultations with politicians that an official statement said were meant to "assess the situation in FATA from the perspective of the elected tribal representatives and other stakeholders responsible for peace and security in the region".
Special officer: Talking to the FATA representatives, the president said a special officer in the presidency would be deputed to liaise between tribal representatives and the state functionaries responsible for FATA affairs, including the governor, the interior adviser, the states and frontier regions minister, the chief secretary, and the Frontier Corps IG.
He said that peace in the Tribal Areas was the foremost priority of the government, which was using all available resources to bring stability to the region. Zardari said that he would hold fortnightly meetings with tribal leaders to discuss the situation in FATA.
Development projects: A number of participants emphasised the need for initiating development projects in FATA. The president said that the government was working on a new model of economic development in which tribesmen would be made shareholders in various development projects with an aim to weaning the unemployed youth away from militancy.
NWFP Governor Owais Ahmad Ghani, States and Frontier Regions Minister Najamuddin Khan, Interior Adviser Rehman Malik, and senior officials from the Interior and Finance divisions and the NWFP government attended the meeting.
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