ISLAMABAD, Aug 15: Sounding firm amid a raging power struggle in Islamabad, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told the National Assembly on Friday his government would establish its writ in the militancy-plagued tribal belt and adjoining areas of the NWFP “at all costs”.

In a brief speech before the lower house recessed for a two-day weekend ahead of planned impeachment proceedings against a besieged President Pervez Musharraf, the prime minister reaffirmed the government policy to talk peace with those who surrender weapons but ignored demands to call off ongoing aerial strikes that some members said had caused many civilian casualties and forced tens of thousands of tribal people to flee their homes for safety.

“We will establish the writ of the government at all costs (as) a parallel government cannot be allowed,” he said after former interior minister Aftab Ahmed Sherpao from the opposition benches spoke of an “intolerable situation” with an estimated 200,000 people fleeing from the violence-hit Bajaur and Mohmand tribal areas close to his electoral constituency in the Charsadda district.

The prime minister said he had sent his Interior Adviser Rahman Malik to the area to ensure provision of shelter and food for the displaced people.

Mr Gilani also referred to Wednesday’s apparent suicide bombing in Lahore on the eve of the Independence Day and arrests of some terror suspects in Rawalpindi and said it was a network threatening peace in the country.

“If we fail to protect the life and property of people, we will have no right to be prime minister here,” he said.

In his first speech in parliament after his first official visit to the United States last month dubbed a failure by the pro-Musharraf opposition but described as a success by the PPP-led ruling coalition, Mr Gilani called for opposition’s support to the government’s campaign against militancy which, he said, was “the biggest threat” to the country.

“This is your country, please help us. It is the duty of everybody,” said the prime minister, who got a comparatively favourable response from the opposition benches after severe criticism of his US visit in the Senate last week.

While Mr Sherpao, whose beakaway PPP-S has already announced support for the coalition government’s impeachment move, and opposition PML-Q’s NWFP chapter president Amir Muqam insisted on questioning usefulness of air strikes because of what they called heavy collateral damage, former PML-Q minister from Sindh Ghaus Bakhsh Mehr promised opposition’s cooperation if parliament was taken into confidence and the issue was tackled above party lines.

The prime minister said he had asked Chief of the Army Staff Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani for a fresh briefing about the anti-militant operations in the tribal areas and assured Mr Sherpao that he too would be consulted like parliament members from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas about the situation there.

Some members from both sides of the house also complained about continued sectarian violence in Parachinar where a prolonged blockade of the road to Peshawar has caused severe shortage of food and medicines, as well as violence in nearby Hangu and Balochistan’s Dera Bugti area.

PIA UNIONS: The house unanimously passed a government bill seeking to restore banned trade unions in the Pakistan International Airline Corporation before being adjourned until 5pm on Monday.