Pakistan needs no advice in counterterrorism effort
Local Wednesday, October 14th, 2009Pakistan‘s former President Pervez Musharraf struck a defiant note in a speech in Houston, saying the United States should contribute money, but not advice, to his country‘s counterterrorism efforts.
The U.S. should assist as Pakistan tries to root out the Taliban and al-Qaeda from within its borders, “but don‘t get into micromanaging how to do it because we know how to do it better than you,” he said.
In an address sponsored by the World Affairs Counsel of Houston, Musharraf issued a stinging critique of U.S. conduct in neighboring Afghanistan and gave the 700 listeners at the Omni Hotel his formula for defeating the Taliban.
Several dozen protesters stood about a half-block from the hotel on the nearest public property waving signs accusing the former president of being a dictator. Musharraf, a military general, assumed power in 1999 in a bloodless coup d‘état and resigned in August last year under threats of impeachment by a coalition government.
In Houston, he received a standing ovation and one man shouted, “We love you!”
After ticking off the economic advances he said Pakistan made under his rule, the former military strongman said that his country didn‘t need outside help to become an economic powerhouse.
“I am a firm believer that Pakistan is a country that has the resources and human capital to rise on its own with no assistance from anybody in the world,” he said to applause from an audience filled with Pakistani expatriates.
He said the U.S. and Pakistan created the mujahedeen, or holy warriors, who flocked to Afghanistan in the 1980s to throw off the Soviet invaders. But the U.S. abandoned 35,000 mujahedeen fighters after the Soviets were driven out, and they formed the nucleus of what would become al-Qaeda, he said.
The United States made a mistake when it refused to recognize the Taliban as a legitimate government, throwing away a chance to influence them and paving the way for al-Qaeda to become influential, Musharraf said.
The United States also erred by allowing the Northern Alliance, made up of ethnic minorities, to gain influence in the post-Taliban government instead of making more concessions to the Pashtun majority, he said.
He said the U.S. government must have representatives with close ties to the Pashtun if it hopes to make any headway in bringing stability to Afghanistan. As for al-Qaeda, only military force can root it out, he said.
Musharraf also urged Pakistan to combat what he said was a minority of religious radicals who are perverting Islam. He said suicide bombers were poor and illiterate and had been brainwashed into believing that suicide bombing would ensure them an idyllic afterlife.
“Suicide bombing is not Islamic, it is not religious,” Musharraf said to applause.
He also made it clear stability in the region sans solution of Kashmir issue is also impossible.
At the event Councilman M.J. Khan presented Musharraf with an honorary citizenship certificate and a gift on behalf of the City of Houston.
Houston is home to a large Pakistani community, a Pakistani Consul General, and several Pakistani business and cultural associations. In March 2009, Mayor Bill White of Houston and Mayor Syed Mustafa Kamal of Karachi, Pakistan, signed the Houston-Karachi Sister City agreement.
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on Oct 14 2009. Filed under