Zardari vows to make every sacrifice to counter terror

September 19th, 2009 LONDON - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has said that terrorist and militants were deliberately created to achieve certain strategic goals and to counter rival ideology. "Militants and militancy were not created in a vacuum; they have been the product of a deliberate policy to fight the rival ideology," Zardari said.

September 14th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari intends to link the start of a full-scale military operation in Waziristan with the provision of military equipment from the US. According to sources, he would press on President Barack Obama to expedite the delivery of these weapons, when he meets him in New York on September 24 to help Islamabad in meeting its urgent needs for adequate military equipments to continue with counter-terrorism campaign.

September 10th, 2009 LAHORE - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has said he believes that Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden is dead. In an interview with the BBC, Zardari said: "It seems as if Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Ladin is no longer alive." Zardari reiterated that democracy was working well in Pakistan, and the government is determined to fight extremism and root out militancy from the country's soil.

September 2nd, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Expressing concerns over the Baloch insurgency, the United States has asked the Pakistan Government to settle all outstanding issues with the Baloch people as soon as possible. According to sources, three US Senators met President Asif Ali Zardari and asked him to resolve the crisis while expressing concerns over the deteriorating law and order situation in the region.

August 19th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has claimed that the Taliban has been defeated in the Swat Valley. In an interview with the News ahead of his meeting with US Special Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke, Zardari said Pakistan was a united nation and would always stand united against its enemy.

August 2nd, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Applauding positive statements from the leaderships of India and Pakistan in the recent past, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said that both Dr. Manmohan Singh and President Asif Ali Zardari are trying their best to deescalate the tension which soared after the November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.

July 10th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Britain would continue its support to Pakistan and stand by the troubled nation through 'thick and thin' in its quest to rid the nation of terror, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband has said. Miliband, who held separate talks with President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani here, assured the leaders that Britain would continue its support to Pakistan to overcome the number of challenges facing the country.

July 6th, 2009 LONDON - Pakistan President Asif Zardari has said he would like to be remembered in Pakistan for creating a country free of militancy. "I would love to be remembered for creating a Pakistan where militancy - I know it can't totally be diminished - is defeated," The Telegraph quoted Zardari, as saying.

July 6th, 2009 LONDON - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari says targeting the Taliban rather than India does not rankle his army because the two nuclear armed countries no longer pose threats to each others territories. "It rankles the small mind," he told the Daily Telegraph in an interview published Monday.

June 30th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has said the military offensive in the Malakand division would continue until militants are completely eliminated from the region. "Either the militants have to lay down arms, give up militancy and accept state's authority or they have to be exterminated.

June 24th, 2009 BRUSSELS - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has said that India is no longer a military threat to Pakistan, rather it is the Taliban which is threatening peace in the region as well as in the whole world. Talking to a private television channel ahead of the first summit between the European Union (EU) and Pakistan here, Zardari said both India and Pakistan do not have any ill-feelings against each other, and both the countries have good intentions.

May 7th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The United States has once again clarified to Pakistan that it would have to counter the expanding writ of the Taliban effectively, and be very specific about what it wants to achieve in the fight against terror, as the "era of lip service was over". Talking to media persons on the sidelines of her meeting with Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton said all the countries should be very specific in working out their plans to counter the terror threat.

May 6th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Ahead of his much awaited meeting with US President Barack Obama, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has urged the United States to provide Predator drone aircrafts to Islamabad to enable it to counter the expanding terror threat in the country more effectively. "I need drones to be part of my arsenal.

May 6th, 2009 WASHINGTON - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke called on President Asif Ali Zardari here on Wednesday. Zardari, Clinton and Holbrooke discussed the war on terror in a breakfast meeting that lasted for about an hour.

April 27th, 2009 LAHORE - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has said the government would be compelled to review its stand on the Swat peace deal and the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation if the people of the region opined the accord has failed to establish peace. "When the people of Swat feel there is no peace even after the regulation, then the provincial government, assembly and the parliament can give their opinion on this issue," The Daily Times quoted Zardari, as saying.