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Pakistan calls for release of pledged international aid

AFP, Istanbul
Pakistan yesterday urged the release of billions of dollars of promised international aid for development projects as it argued that economic prosperity was the best way to counter extremism.
Speaking at an international gathering on ways to stabilise the nuclear-armed South Asian country, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that improving socio-economic development was key to addressing the securitychallenges Islamabad faces.
"Pakistan is determined to eliminate (extremism and terrorism) from its soil as they’ are alien to our ethos." Qureshi told a gathering of the Friends of Democratic Pakistan group
"A strong Pakistan on the path to development and prosperity is the strongest bulwark against all such retrograde forces."
The minister urged international donors to release aid totalling more than five billion dollars pledged at a conference in Tokyo in April, underlining that the need for resources to rehabiliate areas in northwest Pakistan where the army launched a massive operation against the Taliban in April.
"Pledges made at the Tokyo donors' meeting must be real-
ised," he said.
Some 2.3 million people were dislocated as a result of the military push in the districts of Swat, Buner and Lower Dir after militants advanced perilously close to the capital.
In July, the Pakistani army claimed to have cleaned the area of the Taliban threat, saying that it has killed more than 1,900 militants in the operation.
Qureshi said nearly half of the displaced had returned home, but stressed that rebuilding their livelihoods and the area's infrastructure was a " challenge".
The main focus in Tuesday's meeting was the Malakand Pilot Project, a comprehensive development programme that focuses on education and mechanisms to prevent Islamic extremists from taking hold again in the areas cleaned out by the army.
"Our partners in Friends of | Democratic Pakistan can join I and assist the government of Pakistan in this undertaking." Qureishisaid.
Participants will also discuss ways ofencouraging the private I sector from the group's member countries to invest in Pakistan and increasing their partnership with the public sector.