DEFENCE Minister Ahmad Mukhtar has said the government is considering a change in the defence policy. … The defence minister's statement coincides with deteriorating relations with the USA.… Because of Kashmir, we have a bitter history of mutual relations [with India]. On the western side Pakistan is regularly accused of creating trouble. We have always had very warm feelings for Muslim countries but now most of them are not showing any warmth [towards us]. … The only country we can trust is China.…

Our elders had established the principle of not interfering in others' affairs and not allowing others to intervene in your matters. Unfortunately, we have either forgotten this lesson or we cannot fully comprehend its wisdom. We willingly became a part of the US war against Communism and tried to prove more loyal than the king. We gave our bases to the US. When the Russian army invaded Afghanistan in 1979 our military generals with the support of the religious leaders made it out to be a war between Islam and .… for them, it was a windfall. Nobody took the trouble to see the losses the country had to suffer.

The fact is that ours was a secular society which never encouraged religious politics but the educational system was so polluted that liberalism and tolerance disappeared, making social attitudes more brutal. Because of our great dependence on the singular world power, our foreign and defence policies became a sort of meaningless mixture.

If we want to change this, the first step should be ceasing to consider ourselves exporters of political revolution. The only guideline should be that we should have good relationships with all. That is the need of the moment, followed by the establishment of good trade relations…. — (June 30)