LONDON, May 16: President General Pervez Musharraf has said that ‘soft borders’ are not a solution to the Kashmir dispute, but could be a step towards confidence building between Pakistan and India. “Many magazines and articles I read from the Indian side, some of them misrepresent this soft as meaning a solution. I don’t see this as a solution at all. This may be a step towards confidence building, which could facilitate a solution,” he was quoted as saying by the daily Financial Times in an interview here on Monday.
In reply to a question about the proposed $4.5 billion gas pipeline from Iran to India through Pakistan, the president said Pakistan needed energy for its continued development. “We are short of energy. We want gas immediately. Our industry is suffering; investment coming to Pakistan is suffering, so Pakistan’s interest is to get gas fast.”
Answering a question on the arrest of Al Qaeda operative Abu Faraj Farj Al Libbi, Gen Musharraf described the capture as very significant and a big dent for Al Qaeda, rendering it unable to function as a centrally controlled and cohesive entity.
“I can’t say for sure that we finally nailed them and finished them, but we have taken over their sanctuaries, their communications centres, and left them in small batches, on the run. I can certainly say with [a] fair amount of surety that their linkage is very seriously damaged,” the president was quoted as saying.
“We have broken their back. They cease to exist as a cohesive, homogenous body under good command and control, vertical and horizontal,” he added. Answering a question on the reported desecration of the Holy Quran at the Guantanamao Bay interrogation Centre, he called for ‘maximum punishment’ for the people responsible.—APP
