Pak faces multi-dimensional external security threats from, Qaeda, Taliban, US"

Peshawar, Mar 13 : Pakistan was facing multi-dimensional external security threats in the form of al Qaeda, the Taliban, and the possible US strikes on suspected militants and Nuke weapons, Director of the Area Study Centre, Azmat Hayat said at a workshop here last evening.

"The threats confronting the country and the nation at the moment are multidimensional," said Azmat Hayat at the workshop on peace and democracy in Tribal Areas. About the possible US military strikes, he said that US might strike against suspected militants, and might also launch strikes on Pakistan's nuclear weapons if they fall into extremist hands.

He further said that internal security threats were the second dimension, "and it is the mismanagement of these threats that could actually function as a trigger for the external ones."

On the occasion, Hayat also said: "As a consequence of the war on terror and the resultant insurgency in NWFP violence across the country has spiralled out of control. The internal dimension of the security threat undermines the writ and credibility of the state on one hand and the security of life and property of the citizen on the other. Such external and internal security threats have enfeebled the state, which (is) devoid of popular support, relies exclusively on the use of force to fight all political and security challenges thereby exhausting any remaining legitimacy."

"Repeated distortion of constitutional rule; deconstruction of the state institutions, creation of a disconnect between the priorities of the state and the interests of the citizen and the pursuit of a security and foreign policy by a majority has undermined the personal security of its citizen," he added.

Among those present at the workshop were Pakistan Military spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas, foreign diplomats, retired army and civil officers and Tribal Areas residents attended the workshop.

ANI