Musharraf’s plea for trade boost to fight terrorism
CANBERRA, June 14: President Gen Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday urged Australia to help in the war on terror by improving its trade with Pakistan, and stressed that the Al Qaeda terror network no longer functioned cohesively in Pakistan. Speaking at a lunch at the Australian Press Club here, Gen Musharraf said that while skirmishes with militants and raids on their hideouts had broken their networks, poverty alleviation was the key to long-term success in the fight against Al Qaeda and other terror groups.
Australian investment in Pakistan would provide jobs and build industries, helping ease the poverty which drove people into militant groups, he said.
“When you assist us in our industry you are indirectly assisting us in fighting terrorism,” he added.
Pakistan’s security forces had apprehended, eliminated or deported more than 700 suspected Al Qaeda members and had effectively broken the back of the terror network by destroying mountain hideouts and communications hubs, he said.
“No other country in the world has done what Pakistan has done,” Gen Musharraf said. “We occupied their sanctuaries and they are now on the run in the mountains. I believe, in Pakistan, Al Qaeda today ceases to exist as a homogenous entity with good command and control.”
The president said Australia could help Pakistan by exporting its expertise in dairy production, mining and exploration, fruit processing, livestock and agriculture.
In a wide-ranging speech, President Musharraf said there should be no divisions between the Muslim world and the West.
He suggested that if the West had been more engaged with Afghanistan’s Taliban regime, which harboured Osama bin Laden, perhaps the terror war could have been avoided.
“I often wonder now, with hindsight, if my pleas to recognise the Taliban and try to change them from within had been accepted ... maybe even the 9/11 (attacks on the US) could have been avoided,” he said.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who would visit India next month, would also be extended an invitation to visit Pakistan, he said.
He said Pakistan had suffered 250 casualties in fighting Al Qaeda and other militant groups in its western tribal regions.
It had also destroyed the logistics and communications hubs of the terror networks so that they no longer functioned coherently, he said.
However, Osama bin Laden was proving elusive because of the difficulty of the terrain, he added.
“It’s very easy for a person to hide,” Gen Musharraf said.
“I know that he is alive. Most likely he is alive, yes, because of our information and interrogation of various Al Qaeda operatives that we have apprehended. Maybe he is in the border region in hiding wherever he sees a vacuum.”
President Musharraf said while his government had deployed around 70,000 troops to fight militants hiding in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, the soldiers could not cover the entire region.
“It is not easy to get a person there,” the president said.
KASHMIR ISSUE: The president said he was trying to build a stable peace with India and expressed optimism that a resolution to the Kashmir dispute acceptable to Pakistan, India and the people of Kashmir could be achieved through flexibility and sincerity.
He called for settlement of the dispute within the tenures of current leadership of the two South Asian nations.
“I don’t have a strict time-frame in my mind but both countries should seize the peace opportunity — and in view of harmony and understanding between the current leadership of Pakistan and India, the Kashmir dispute should be resolved within our tenures,” he stressed.
The president observed that there was no guarantee that the future leadership of the two countries would have the same level of harmony and understanding.
Gen Musharraf said that Pakistan and India were moving on two tracks – confidence-building measures and conflict-resolution — and stressed the two must move in tandem.
The world community, he said, could make a critical contribution in dispute-resolution by encouraging all sides to remain on course to reach the destination and called upon Australia to do the same.
“A just settlement of Kashmir will usher in a new era of durable peace and brighter future for the people of South Asia,” he said, pointing out the low level of trade and economic cooperation in the region.
MEETING: President Musharraf and Australian Governor-General Michael Jeffers expressed the mutual desire to enhance bilateral relations.
The two leaders, meeting briefly ahead of the state banquet hosted by the governor-general, shared the hope that the two countries would develop stronger cooperation in areas of bilateral interest.
WELCOME: Earlier, President Musharraf was accorded state welcome at the parliament house where Governor-General Michael Jeffery and Prime Minister John Howard received him. —Agencies
