‘We Will Not be Blackmailed’

Pakistan's newly elected Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani faces a host of pressing problems. Since taking office late last month, Gilani, 55, said that his priority would be trying to establish law and order in the wake of a spate of deadly suicide bombings, one of which killed the leader of his Pakistan People's Party, Benazir Bhutto, late last December. While Gilani ruled out holding talks with any armed militants along the Afghan border, foreign or Pakistani, he said that military force would be a last resort. First he wanted to concentrate on bringing economic development to the poverty-stricken region. The scion of a powerful landowning and spiritually influential family in Multan, which emigrated to the subcontinent from Syria some 500 years ago and which traces its ancestry back to the Prophet Muhammad, he also ruled out any unilateral U.S. military strikes into Pakistan, hinted that parliament will strip Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf of his power to dissolve the government and will soon restore the senior judges whom Musharraf sacked last November. Speaking to NEWSWEEK's Ron Moreau in the prime minister's residence on a wooded hill overlooking Islamabad, Gilani said he was confident he could work with Army Chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, whom he praised as a good, highly professional soldier. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: Your new government is facing myriad problems: terrorism, extremism, an economic and financial crisis, power and food shortages and inflation. What's your priority?
Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani: What I personally feel is that political stability leads to economic stability. My priority would be to control the law-and-order situation in the country, so we have to discourage this extremism and terrorism. That's what is affecting our economy. Law and order is affecting foreign investment, and internally it's becoming an acute problem because we have to spend a lot on defense.

What specifically can you do to improve law and order?
We need the help of the entire world, because we are fighting terrorism and extremism, though it is our own war. We want a three-pronged strategy to combat terrorism, especially in the areas of FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) that are close to the Afghan border. First, we should deal with the people to improve their well-being and give them good job opportunities. We need to create a good environment and an education system [without the] old madrassas, where the students are being groomed for the Taliban, and give good health and communications facilities. We should give the people bread and butter and jobs, and only then can we think of the other strategy of [employing military] force. Force should be kept in the background and should not be put into practice all the time. If force is [used] all the time it will erode the authority of the government.

You have also said that you would talk to the militant groups along the border. Whom would you talk to and what would you say to them?
We are not in favor of talking to the militants and hardliners. We want to only talk to people who have laid down and decommissioned their arms. Then we can talk to them.

But you are facing militants like Baitullah Mehsud and the Haqqani network, who have created a state within a state along the border and who are making demands on your government. How will you deal with people like those, who also seem to control and intimidate moderate tribal leaders?
Being the chief executive I have to look after the interest of my own country. We will not be blackmailed by them. We won't listen to their demands that are totally unrealistic. If they want us to hand over [jailed] terrorists as a [precondition] for talks, that will not happen.

So no talks with armed militants?
No. We won't talk to them until our preconditions are met. They should [put down] their arms first. Not only Mehsud but also other [armed] tribes who are not militants.