Tuesday June 23, 2009
WASHINGTON: Advocating the critical importance of democracy and economic development to defeating terrorists, President Asif Ali Zardari on Monday asked the international community, particularly the Western powers, to support Pakistan with immediate assistance as well as expanded trade to help it address challenges of global implications.
The president underlined the urgency to back Pakistani anti-terror effort with a 'robust economic package' to help the democratic government deliver for its millions of displaced people from Swat and other north-western valleys. In an opinion piece in The Washington Post, Zardari called the internally displaced persons as the latest victims of terror that has afflicted the country in recent years.
'In the battle against international terrorism, we are in the trenches for ourselves but also for the world. We have lost more soldiers, 1,200 of them, fighting the Taliban in Pakistan than all of the countries of Nato have lost, combined, fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan. Thousands of civilians, victims of attacks such as the recent bombing of the Pearl Continental Hotel in Peshawar, have died," he wrote.
At a personal level, Zardari said, 'I lost my wife (former prime minister) Benazir Bhutto, the mother of my children and Pakistan's greatest leader.' He appreciated the expression of support by President Barack Obama's administration but said the European economic powers must join the effort to back Pakistan's crucial struggle against militancy.
'We need immediate assistance. The Obama administration recognises that only an economically viable Pakistan can contain the terrorist menace.' In this respect, Zardari noted that the United States has committed $1.5 billion a year for five years to help stabilise Pakistan's economy, and the House of Representatives and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee have acted decisively to reorient the Pakistani-American relationship towards not just a military alliance but a sustained economic partnership.
'Now, the rest of the world must step up and match the US effort. Pakistan needs a robust assistance package so that we can deliver for the people and defeat the militants. And the rest of the world should again follow the American lead in helping us deal with the millions of internally displaced people who are the most recent victims of terrorism in our nation.'
Concurrently, he underscored, the rich Western countries must give greater access to Pakistani trade and launch preferential trade programmes for it. 'But aid is not enough. In the long term, Pakistan needs trade to allow us to become economically independent.' 'Only such an economically robust Pakistan will be able to contain the fanatics and demonstrate to the 1.5 billion Muslims world-wide that democracy and economic development go hand in hand.'
He applauded the United States' initiative to move forward with the preferential trade program called economic opportunity zones in Afghanistan and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas region of Pakistan. The programme, he said, will remove trade barriers and provide economic incentives to build factories, start industries, employ workers-and give hope to the people.
'This opportunity zone concept should be a model to Europe, as well. Europe must realise that it is in its own self-interest, as the United States has realised, to do everything possible to grow the Pakistani economy and to provide incentives for Pakistani exports to the continent.'
The president faulted the Western capitals for supporting Pakistani dictators in the past at the cost damage to democracy. 'The West, most notably the United States, has been all too willing to dance with dictators in pursuit of perceived short-term goals. The litany of these policies and their consequences clutter the earth, from the Marcos regime in the Philippines, to the Shah in Iran, to Mohammed Zia ul-Haq and Pervez Musharraf in Pakistan.
(APP)
WASHINGTON: Advocating the critical importance of democracy and economic development to defeating terrorists, President Asif Ali Zardari on Monday asked the international community, particularly the Western powers, to support Pakistan with immediate assistance as well as expanded trade to help it address challenges of global implications.
The president underlined the urgency to back Pakistani anti-terror effort with a 'robust economic package' to help the democratic government deliver for its millions of displaced people from Swat and other north-western valleys. In an opinion piece in The Washington Post, Zardari called the internally displaced persons as the latest victims of terror that has afflicted the country in recent years.
'In the battle against international terrorism, we are in the trenches for ourselves but also for the world. We have lost more soldiers, 1,200 of them, fighting the Taliban in Pakistan than all of the countries of Nato have lost, combined, fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan. Thousands of civilians, victims of attacks such as the recent bombing of the Pearl Continental Hotel in Peshawar, have died," he wrote.
At a personal level, Zardari said, 'I lost my wife (former prime minister) Benazir Bhutto, the mother of my children and Pakistan's greatest leader.' He appreciated the expression of support by President Barack Obama's administration but said the European economic powers must join the effort to back Pakistan's crucial struggle against militancy.
'We need immediate assistance. The Obama administration recognises that only an economically viable Pakistan can contain the terrorist menace.' In this respect, Zardari noted that the United States has committed $1.5 billion a year for five years to help stabilise Pakistan's economy, and the House of Representatives and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee have acted decisively to reorient the Pakistani-American relationship towards not just a military alliance but a sustained economic partnership.
'Now, the rest of the world must step up and match the US effort. Pakistan needs a robust assistance package so that we can deliver for the people and defeat the militants. And the rest of the world should again follow the American lead in helping us deal with the millions of internally displaced people who are the most recent victims of terrorism in our nation.'
Concurrently, he underscored, the rich Western countries must give greater access to Pakistani trade and launch preferential trade programmes for it. 'But aid is not enough. In the long term, Pakistan needs trade to allow us to become economically independent.' 'Only such an economically robust Pakistan will be able to contain the fanatics and demonstrate to the 1.5 billion Muslims world-wide that democracy and economic development go hand in hand.'
He applauded the United States' initiative to move forward with the preferential trade program called economic opportunity zones in Afghanistan and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas region of Pakistan. The programme, he said, will remove trade barriers and provide economic incentives to build factories, start industries, employ workers-and give hope to the people.
'This opportunity zone concept should be a model to Europe, as well. Europe must realise that it is in its own self-interest, as the United States has realised, to do everything possible to grow the Pakistani economy and to provide incentives for Pakistani exports to the continent.'
The president faulted the Western capitals for supporting Pakistani dictators in the past at the cost damage to democracy. 'The West, most notably the United States, has been all too willing to dance with dictators in pursuit of perceived short-term goals. The litany of these policies and their consequences clutter the earth, from the Marcos regime in the Philippines, to the Shah in Iran, to Mohammed Zia ul-Haq and Pervez Musharraf in Pakistan.
(APP)
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