Boucher said, “We all know there are some very dangerous people who are up there, people who are plotting and planning attacks on Pakistan, Afghanistan, Europe, the US and other places in the world.

“Somehow, we all need to deal with that. We are doing this in Afghanistan and we want to work with the Pakistani government as well as partners to make the people of all our countries safer.”

The war on terror figured in Boucher’s meetings on Friday with ANP chief Asfandyar Wali Khan, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Zardari.

Khan told Boucher that the ANP favoured using jirgas or tribal councils for talks with the militants.

Asked by reporters to elaborate on the PPP’s plans to conduct the war on terror according to its own definition, Zardari said the country was capable of protecting its sovereignty.

“The PPP’s definition is the people’s definition that it is Pakistan’s war as much as anybody else’s. It may have been anybody’s war yesterday or the day before but today it is in our streets in Lahore and Karachi and Islamabad,” Zardari said.