February 06, 2008	Wednesday	Muharram 27, 1429

NEW YORK, Feb 5: Taking exception to an article written by NYT columnist Selig S Harrison in the Feb 1 issue of the paper, Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Munir Akram said on Tuesday that views of the author “confirms the belief of many Pakista-nis that there is an international conspiracy to destabilise and disintegrate Pakistan, the only Islamic nuclear state.”

In the article titled ‘Drawn-and Quartered’, Harrison suggests ‘the breakup of Pakistan would be a costly and destabilising development that can still be avoided, but only if the United States and other foreign donors use their enormous aid leverage to convince Islamabad that it should not only put the 1973 Constitution back into effect, but amend it to go beyond the limited degree of autonomy it envisaged”.

In the rejoinder published on Tuesday, Mr Akram says the orchestrated campaign against President Musharraf, the denigration of the Pakistani Army, calls for the capture of Pakistan’s nuclear assets and the string of suicide bombings are all seen as aimed at this malevolent design.

“Pakistan is a strong state held together solidly by the patriotism of its people and the strength of its civilian and military institutions. With a dynamic (7pc) annual growth rate, significant foreign investment, the best performing stock exchange in Asia and the progressive reduction of poverty, all Pakistanis, including Pashtuns, Sindhis and Baluchis, are much better placed to achieve their aspirations within Pakistan, as they decided in 1947 through an irrevocable act of self-determination,” he says.