Asif Ali Zardari Sees No Risk To Government

Saturday, May 29, 2010 at 5:37 pm

NEW YORK: President Asif Ali Zardari Saturday said that his government was not facing any risk of falling down at all, as it is fighting to save Pakistan.

Asif Ali Zardari Sees No Risk To Government He said this while talking to Newsweek in an interview.He said, ‘I don’t think you should pay much heed to the rumor mills in Washington or Islamabad. [The accused would-be bomber], Faisal Shahzad, although of Pakistani origin, is an American national. There is no cure for badness. But the cooperation with the U.S. is good.’

On a question regarding North Waziristan operation, he said one works with one’s own game plan, adding, ‘We are fighting to save Pakistan. So we’re working on it with a map in our hand. I was in America when the Taliban took Buner [in April 2009], and the press took me to town. I told them we’ll handle it, and we did. We’d like to know who is financing the Afghan Taliban, and who’s financing the Pakistani Taliban. We haven’t got any closer to knowing that.’

On a query regarding Ajmal Kasab, Zardari said, he was a little disenchanted with India and expected the largest democracy in the world to behave much more maturely.

‘We are facing a threat on the eastern and western borders. This new-age terror has created a phenomenon where a few people can take entire states to war. The fact that these people happen to belong to Pakistan or India or Bangladesh is immaterial. They are nonstate actors, and states should behave like states.’

Responding a question regarding the U.S. attitude to Pakistan improving economic relations with Iran, he said there was no pressure from America to not pursue opportunities.

‘You must have heard that Iran is willing to give us electricity. Where is the transmission line? Setting up a transmission line, you’re talking four years. In four years, we can build hydroelectricity dams, and we intend to. We are looking forward to trading with all our neighbors. Nobody can put pressure on Pakistan for anything. We do what is in Pakistan’s interest.’

President Zardari spoke on his government’s successes, and said, ‘I think we’ve created an appetite in the world to look at the case of Pakistan from our eyes. Hence the locally evolved IMF package, extended aid to Pakistan, and new strategic dialogue with the U.S. Because we’ve managed to, I think, have these diplomatic successes, we’ve created a new vision of Pakistan as far as other countries are concerned. The press still remains cynical.’

Zardari a little critical of the media, said the media hamper work in the sense that the capacity and time to deliver, to do more work for the country, get consumed elsewhere.

‘But then that’s part of governing in the developing world. Pakistan today is faced with such challenges that one needs to forget about most of our internal and our personal issues. If you do a needs assessment for the population and then take responsibility, lots of issues will look frivolous. Look at the bigger picture, like the war on terror, which tells you that the state is under threat.’

On a query regarding hazards to the government, he said, “I think all the political forces sitting today in Parliament have reinvented ourselves. The 18th Amendment [to the Constitution] is a reflection of the great maturity, I feel, democratic forces in Pakistan have achieved. But then, of course, we are all still politicians. I’m an optimist to the core, and I don’t think the government and Parliament are in any danger.’

Asif Ali Zardari Sees No Risk To Government

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