Interior Minister Rehman MalikPak politician, current Interior Minister under the Gilani administration. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. He later joined the Pak Peoples Party and was chief security officer to Bhutto. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Näwaz Shärif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men.
emphasised the need on Saturday for coordinated and concerted efforts by the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation to combat terrorism and money laundering.
Addressing the fourth Saarc Interior Ministers' Conference here in the Bhutanese capital, he said Pakistain was making serious endeavours to eliminate the menaces from society.
Mr Malik, who presided over the conference, suggested constitution of SaarcPol, on the pattern of Interpol, and stressed the need for creating a Saarc commission with the objective of promoting harmony. He also called for the formation of a joint task force to control incidents of piracy in the Indian Ocean.
The minister said Pakistain, its people and armed forces had rendered great sacrifices in the war on terror and in preventing faceless myrmidons from fanning out to other parts of the country and the region. The war would continue till the elimination of terrorism, he added.
He said: "Pak people are suffering because of terrorism for 10 years. We experienced 7,485 bomb kabooms out of which 3,800 were suicide kabooms. More than 35,000 innocent Paks have bit the dust in the war on terror."
He said that after the attack on the Twin Towers in New York, Pakistain had paid a heavy price because people were facing incidents of 9/11 and Mumbai each and every day, but such incidents could not weaken the morale of Paks who were committed to eliminating the menace.
Mr Malik said Pakistain had improved rules and regulations regarding border control and immigration.
He said in addition to amendments to the Anti-terrorism Act, security forces in Pakistain were being equipped with modern gadgets and they were being imparted training to improve their performance.
"It is important to introduce philosophy of inter-faith harmony. I appreciate the King Abdullah of Soddy Arabia who took forward this philosophy. Exploitation within the religion must end. We can adopt that philosophy for Saarc too because most of the countries of the region were suffering," he added.
The minister informed the conference that Pakistain had banned activities of 31 organizations as part of its policy to combat terrorism and extremism and emphasised the need to change the mindset of people to control terrorism.
"It is a very crucial time because people are suffering, especially because of terrorism. The whole region of Saarc is suffering from it."