November 02, 2007	Friday	Shawwal 20, 1428

WASHINGTON, Nov 1: General Ehsanul Haq, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, has urged the United States and other Western nations to stop blaming Pakistan for encouraging terrorists because Pakistan itself is a victim of militancy.

In his first media encounter after his retirement last month, Gen Ehsan told a group of Pakistani journalists in Washington that nations who supported the Afghan war against the Soviet forces share the blame for the rise of terrorism in South Asia.

The general also rejected suggestion that Pakistan was moving towards another martial law, saying that he was confident the country would continue to move unhindered towards “a fully-fledged democracy.”

“We are in a transitional period that’s why we are having all these problems but the problems need to be seen in the correct perspective.” Commenting on western media reports that almost all major terrorists arrested since Sept 11, 2001, were detained in Pakistan, Gen Ehsan said the detentions did not support the suggestion that Pakistan was sheltering terrorists.

“Had the world been created on Sept 12, 2001, this suggestion would be correct but it was not,” he said. The general recalled that Pakistan was used as a conduit to fight the Soviet occupation forces in Afghanistan. “When the war ended, other allies quit the region; clapping their hands and claiming victory. They left Afghanistan and Pakistan to suffer the consequences,” he said.

“If we were sponsoring the Taliban, they were sponsoring Osama bin Laden,” said Gen Ehsan, while urging the US media to stop mud-slinging.

“Don’t go too deep into the past. It will not help anyone. Let us focus on the effort we all have undertaken after 9/11,” he said.

Gen Ehsan said that Pakistan is not willing to accept charges from anyone. “If they do not trust us, good luck to them,” he said. “We do not need certificates of commitment from anyone.”

Pakistan, he said, had deployed more troops in the war against terror than any other nation and suffered more losses than anyone else. “Would anybody sacrifice his life if he were not committed?” he asked.

Gen Ehsan also advised the United States to stop using the term “war on terror” because “it is a struggle, not a war, a long struggle which requires all allies to trust each other.”

The former JCSC chairman also advised the West to look at the root causes of terrorism — Palestine, Kashmir, Chechnya and now Iraq — and take immediate steps to remove these causes.

“There is a need for a grand strategic rapprochement based on an equitable treatment of all Muslim issues,” he said.

Pakistan, he said, was willing to do whatever it could to fight terrorism. “But both in formal and informal meetings, we urge our US allies not to ask us to do the impossible, and they understand.”

Asked if he felt the US was a trustworthy ally, the general said: “If you look at history, it does not give hope. But if you look at challenges, you realise that it is in their national interest – and in our interest too – to maintain a long-term relationship.”

Gen Ehsan rejected the suggestion that the majority in tribal areas supported the Taliban or Al Qaeda militants. “Only a small but active minority backs them,” he said.

The MMA government in NWFP, he recalled, had asked the government to send more troops to Swat but not to deploy them. They thought they could handle Maulana Fazlullah and did not want the central government to interfere.

“If the government had taken any action when the MMA was in power, the then chief minister, Akram Durrani, would have said, ‘if we have no problem, why are you so keen to take action?’”

Gen Ehsan recalled that the MMA government signed an agreement with the militants and also sent a jirga to when the militants violated the agreement.

“But when the new government came, it concluded that it cannot allow the militants to run Swat, so it decided to take action.”