LONDON, March 23: President Asif Ali Zardari urged Britain and the United States on Monday to do more to help his government fight terrorism and insisted he would not allow militancy to take over in Pakistan.

He said his Pakistan People’s Party had brought democracy to the country after eight years under the military rule of General Pervez Musharraf, and the international community should now play its part.

Asked in an interview on Sky News television to outline his key message to Britain and the United States, Mr Zardari said: “The message is: You’ve got democracy, democracy is part of the solution -- but ... the second part of the solution is with you, so please give us the help that we need.”

Mr Zardari gave no details of what kind of help he wanted, but Sky News quoted him on its website as saying: “We haven’t received a dollar. Until then we don’t have the tools to fight.”

Western allies fear that recent political instability in Pakistan is allowing militant groups like Al Qaeda and the Taliban to take hold in vulnerable areas of the nuclear-armed country, but Mr Zardari rejected such fears.

“The Taliban are not going to be in control of any part of my country,” he said, adding that reports of Sharia law being handed down in some areas of the country were “media hype”.

The president said that the international community had to recognise and accept its role in the rise of militancy and international terrorism.

“The world has to accept that we are all collectively responsible for creating this monster. I think the world has not been told about this, they have not been talking about it, they have been in denial.”—Agencies
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