WASHINGTON: President General Pervez Musharraf Thursday disclosed to the members of Pakistan community that India twice backed out from singing the agreed upon drafts of the historic Aagra summit.
Addressing around one thousand members of the community here at the Marriott Hotel, he regretted the hawks in the Indian government sabotaged the Agra bid for the resolutions of differences between India and Pakistan.
Twice the draft of the final Agra accord was tempered by the hard-liners in the Indian administration. He said even Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee and Foreign Minister Jaswant had agreed to the draft, that was subsequently altered by the other Indian leaders siting behind the stage.
He said if we think peace can be brought about by addressing all issues and sidelining Kashmir, that is not possible. Pakistan believes in a realistic look and addressing all issues specially the core issue of Kashmir over which India and Pakistan have fought so many wars and over which even now there is tension on the borders.
He said Pakistan wants peace in the region for the economic progress, poverty alleviation in one of the most deprived areas in the globe where one-fifth of humanity leaves in a state of deprivation. For their sake and for the sake of the two countries and the region, there is need for peace.
General Pervez said Pakistan expects sincerity and purposeful negotiations from India to move forward to resolve the Kashmir dispute and all other issues between the two countries. He made it clear that imposition of an unpopular and unworkable solution would remain untenable.
The president said that bilateralism has failed and there is a requirement of mediation or facilitation in resolving disputes between India and Pakistan. In this connection he said for so many years the two countries have been trying to resolve the issue of Kashmir and even Simla accord calls for bilateral resolution of disputes but there has been no forward movement.
He said the present tension and escalation is not from Pakistani side but from India. He said Pakistan has only reacted. He said the excuse has been the attack on the Indian parliament which Pakistan has condemned but this excuse cannot be used for brinkmanship and taking the tension so high that the two countries got close to going to war which is irresponsible.
In his wide-ranging statement about his vision of Pakistan's future, the president said the government is focusing on economic revival, poverty alleviation, good governance and political restructuring.
General Pervez Musharraf said in order to have sustainable democracy, they are going to bring in balance of power between the Prime Minister and the President and there will be an effective Presidency.
He said voters list and delimitation of constituencies has started, an autonomous Election Commission has been created, the election order will be promulgated in a few days and general elections to the National and Provincial Assemblies will be held in October this year.
He said the establishment of local governments on the 14th of August last year is a silent revolution reflecting true empowerment of the people by giving them political, administrative and financial authority at the district level.
As for the economic revival, he said the government is following a strategy to get out of the debt trap as over fifty percent of the budget was being spent on debt servicing. The debt strategy formulated is to acquire fiscal space through effective debt restructuring and acquiring funds and resources to invest in fast returning development projects.
He said national development strategy is a bigger struggle against poverty, illiteracy, corruption, exploitation and disease. This is a focused strategy the government is following. About poverty alleviation, he referred to the opening of Micro-Credit Bank, launching of Khushal Pakistan Program to provide employment and money to the poorest of the poor, Zakat strategy and food support program.
About the area of good governance, he said checking of corruption is in the focus. The National Accountability Bureau over the last two years has been able to recover about one poine seven billion dollars from the corrupt.
The government, he said, is restructuring police and judiciary, providing additional allocations for education and health sectors. It has also formulated a Human Development Commission to improve health and education, alleviate poverty and for capacity building.
General Pervez Musharraf said he sees Pakistan as a liberal, tolerant, progressive, dynamic and a strong Islamic state. He said theocracy has no place in governance in Islam. He said full rights have been given to the minorities in Pakistan as given in our religion. He said Pakistan's polity consists of moderate, religious Muslims and not extremists. Pakistanis are also deeply involved in the issue of Kashmir and also about their security concerns with India.
He said he has taken a number of actions in Pakistan and banned a number of religious organisations and parties. The government has undertaken to reform the religious schools, it was implementing a Madrasa strategy and has issued instructions for control over the misuse of mosques or the activities other than religious activities. He said these actions of the government have been welcomed by the general public in Pakistan.
Emphasizing the importance of Pakistan in the Muslim world as a modern Islamic society, he drew the attention of the audience towards the strong religious under current in the Gulf, the Middle East, north African Muslim countries and central Asian republics.
He said never in the history of Pakistan any religious party ever won more than five percent of votes. In the last local government elections the candidates supported by religious parties or groups could not get even two percent of the votes. He said Pakistanis are certainly religious but not extremists. He said a proof of this was that in line with his speech of 12th of January a number of measures against religious extremism were taken and were welcomed by the masses at large.
President said Pakistan has always desired unity and stability of Afghanistan and peace there so that the region gets involved in economic activity beneficial to all the countries of the region. He said the military operation should end as soon as possible.
He welcomed the Bonn accord and said it was proceeding well and that the chairman of the Afghan interim administration Mr. Hamid Karzai is a good selection, who can deliver. He said the challenge is to prevent outside influences and spoiling of environment in Afghanistan.
For this he emphasized the need for writ of the central government in Kabul over whole of Afghanistan through political linkages, spread of International Security Assistance Force, Afghan police and Afghan Army all over Afghanistan to enhance the authority of the central government.
Replying to questions, General Pervez Musharraf said under the present circumstances both India and Pakistan are to realize that having a non-nuclear war is very expensive undertaking and should not be initiated. They ought to act responsibly. He said the initiation of nuclear conflict is unthinkable at all by both countries.
To a question by an Indian-American national, the President said both the countries need to sit together and address all issues through dialogue and the main issue is Kashmir. He said if any one denies that Kashmir is not the main dispute he is just insincere. He said during Agra visit he met media eluminaries, former prime ministers and foreign ministers and they all recognised that Kashmir is the main dispute between the two countries which needs to be resolve.
Earlier, in his address of welcome Congressmen Lee Hamilton, who is also Director of Woodrow Wilson Centre, said Pakistan and the United States have a long and important history of close relationships. After 11th September, the two countries have revitalised this relationship.
He said Pakistan has been very helpful in international campaign against terrorism. Under President Pervez Musharraf Pakistan ended support of Taliban, granted US access to its air space and intelligence and took action against extremist groups in Pakistan. He said American people are grateful to the government of Pakistan and President Pervez Musharraf for this critical support.