PESHAWAR, Aug 23: Former governor of NWFP, Lt-Gen (retiredd) Ali Mohammad Jan Aurakzai, has said as long as Nato forces are in Afghanistan peace will never dawn upon the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and the settled district of the province.

Giving his assessment as a key-speaker at the second seminar on Fata here at Pakistan Academy of Rural Development on Saturday, he said the use of brute force, as perceived by the United States and its Nato allies, was not solution to the growing militancy and terrorism in this part of the world. He said peaceful process of negotiations and economic development was a preferable way for ending the violent menace from the area. He said he had made it clear upon the US policy-makers that even their 40 allies could not restore peace to Afghanistan.

He underlined the need for re-activation of Pakistan-Afghanistan Jirga Commission for the betterment of things on both sides of the border.

The seminar on Central Fata, which makes up Orakzai Agency, Kurrum Agency and the Frontier Region of Kohat district, was organised by the Benazir Decomcracy Institute, a subsidiary wing of the Shaheed Bhutto Bhutto Foundation to bringing Fata at par with the other parts of the country. It was the second part of a series of seminars on Fata by the Pakistan People’s Party think-tank.

Mr Aurakzai said the western nations had developed a kind of rigid perception about Fata and they termed it a heaven of narcotic smugglers, terrorists and dirty people, whose existence was a threat for the western peace and development. Referring to his experience at a seminar on security issue in Germany, he said every participant was afraid of Fata. He said that representatives from Nato-members countries and Gulf Co-operative Councils and Japan were also present. There was a wide perception among delegates that Fata was a land of insolents, who were merchants of death and destruction. He said they were of the view that Fat was home to Al Qaeda terrorists, different jihadi outfits and suicide bombers. “If another 9/11 like tragedy happens in any western country, it will originate from Fata, where Osama bin Laden, Aiman al Zwahiri and other jihadis are present with their terrorist brigades and training facilities,” he added.

Mr Aurakzai said that the western states were engaged in a well-orchestrated propaganda against Fata and Pakistan. They claimed that Fata was a launching-pad for the heroin business. The world, he said, was ignorant about Fata. “They do not make difference between the militants and Taliban,” he said.

He said that people of Pakistan were opposed to participation of their country into the war on terror, which had brought many calamities for them. “They think Nato’s so-called war in Afghanistan is unethical, illegal and a crusade against the Muslim and Islam. They fear that America and its allies may forcibly encroach upon mineral-rich lands of Fata, Afghanistan and Central Asian Republics. They think that Fata is being used as laboratory by the power-seekers. If Russia’s occupation of Afghanistan was an aggression, Nato’s occupation is also wrong,” he added.

Mr Aurakzai asked the government to fix its limits of cooperation with the United States, to draw a line of demarcation between its own and American interests.

He said that every national policy, which did not carry the support of people, was bound to fail. He proposed to the government to review its policy on war on terror in the larger interest of Pakistan. “We are a sovereign and independent state, why we should take dictation from any other state,” he asked. He said restoration of peace, economic development and dispensation of inexpensive and speedy justice were the main issues of tribal people.