LAHORE, April 26: President Pervez Musharraf has said that foreigners, particularly Uzbeks and Afghans having links with Al Qaeda, are hiding in tribal areas and they carry out terrorist activities not only in the country, but are also financiers for such activities.

Addressing participants of a management course at the National Management College here on Saturday, he said the Taliban were also facilitating terror acts and had links with foreigners.

“A major threat is the spread of Talibanisation from the tribal areas to Swat and southern parts of the NWFP,” the president said, adding that Pakistan today was facing internal security threats.

He said that another factor hampering the country’s development was extremism, accusing the custodians of Lal Masjid of trying to impose their will by force.

He also said some elements in Balochistan like the BLA had separatist tendency, but the government would “nip their designs”.

“We have to chalk out a long-term strategy to address these grave problems. Pakistan does not have any offensive designs against anyone and is at peace. This is its strength.”

The government, he said, had tried to settle the Balochistan issue politically and through socio-economic development.

President Musharraf stressed the need for bridging the gap between policy formulation and implementation. He said it was unfortunate that every incoming government “does away with the outgoing government’s policies”. This hindered development, he added.

The president said that nepotism was another menace which badly affected the government’s performance. “The job of a government is to ensure security, progress and development of the country and welfare and well-being of its people,” he added.—APP