VIENTIANE, July 29: Pakistan is doing ‘more than its share’ in the fight against terrorism, Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri told AFP on Friday after agreeing to cooperate with Southeast Asian nations against the violence. He said his country’s commitment to the fight against terrorism was complete.

“We are serving the national interest of Pakistan. We are not doing it because the United States or any other country is asking us to do that.” he said. Mr Kasuri said instability would threaten Pakistan’s growth, which was 8.4 percent last year, second only to China in Asia.

“Terrorist acts will obviously create conditions of instability. So it is absolutely wrong, the propaganda by the opposition against us, that we are doing it to please the United States or anybody else,” he said on the sidelines of the Asean Regional Forum (ARF).

A group representing religious schools has said the country will face ‘dire consequences’ unless a crackdown on suspected militants and clerics ends.

“They will make attempts,” Mr Kasuri said. “But when such an overwhelming majority of the ordinary population is opposed to acts of terrorism, they will remain confined and the mischief will not spread.”

Referring to the reports that two of the four London bombers visited Pakistan together in 2003 before making another trip last year, he said: “They were British-born. Simply to say that they went for a month to x, y, z place should not make that much of a material difference.” Mr Kasuri said a declaration on cooperation to combat terrorism signed with Asean on Friday would mean better intelligence sharing and most importantly, cooperation and coordination.

However, he said such agreements were a short-term response, but in the long term the roots of terrorism must be addressed. “You need to remove a sense of grievance among the large number of Muslims, that there are many areas where justice is not being done,” he said, citing the Palestinian issue as the most important.

Rejecting the impression that while President Musharraf may be sincere in cracking down on extremists, support for radicals is entrenched in parts of the Pakistani establishment, he said the armed forces, administration and political parties were fully behind the fight against terrorism.

Asked whether other countries at the ARF had asked about Pakistan’s crackdown on alleged extremists, Mr Kasuri replied: “They have not asked me because they know that Pakistan is doing more than its share. We are doing whatever is required to do.”