The News : Govt launches damage control campaign

Govt launches damage control campaign

By Tariq Butt

ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to launch a vigorous “damage control” campaign in different spheres in the wake of the bloody operation at the Lal Masjid-Jamia Hafsa Complex.

President Gen Pervez Musharraf has firmed up a strategy in this connection after discussing it with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao, Religious Affairs Minister Ejaz ul Haq and Information Minister Muhammad Ali Durrani with inputs from senior officials, an official told The News.

Ejaz has been assigned the task to boost up his contacts and coordination with religious sections, including the Wafaq-ul-Madaris, to diffuse the pressure that they are exerting on account of the operation. The minister will meet different religious leaders in the near future, the official said.

Ejaz told a meeting chaired by the president that the most-important religious groups would not support any anti-government agitation due to the storming of the Lal Masjid-Jamia Hafsa Complex because they had already disapproved these militants’ policies.

Durrani has been assigned the task to highlight the government’s case at different fora and closely work with independent print and electronic media and arrange seminars for the purpose.

Sherpao has been directed to project the details of the operation so that “misconceptions” about it are dispelled. Pakistan Muslim League (PML) President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain would take care of the political front to control the damage to the government because of the operation.