Pakistan made a 'scapegoat' in war against terror: FM

New York, Oct 2 (PTI) Terming terrorism as the "single biggest challenge" faced by it, Pakistan has said it is being made a "scapegoat" for the "failures" of the U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan and sought help to sustain democracy as a panacea to combat all the ills facing the nation.

"The struggle against terrorism is the defining struggle
of our times," Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi
said in an address at the prestigious Princeton University in
New Jersey Wednesday.

Describing terrorism that has devastated Pakistan as
the "single biggest challenge we face as a nation," he said
that when terrorists hit the twin towers in New York in 2001
it was not an attack on the U.S. alone.

"It was an attack against all civilised societies.
Terrorism poses a threat to all of us. It demands a response
from all of us," he said.

Interestingly, there was not a single reference to the
Indo-Pak relations or the vexed Kashmir issue in his lengthy
speech.

He said it would be helpful if one could understand
the genesis of the genie Pakistan was grappling with. "We
inherited the terrorism issue in the wake of the war against
the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan," he said.

"Unfortunately while we won the war, we lost the
peace. The spectacle of the Berlin Wall being breached and
Soviet satellites gaining freedom in Europe claimed U.S.
attention and just when Afghanistan and Pakistan needed U.S.
and international support the most, it found itself
abandoned," he said.

The rise of the Taliban was a natural corollary to
developments in Afghanistan following the Soviet withdrawal
and the U.S. turning away, Qureshi said, adding that the
Taliban regime, which seized Kabul, offered a haven for
terrorists, including Osama bin Laden.

He asserted that Pakistan was combating al-Qaeda and
Taliban militants actively in its restive tribal areas
bordering Afghanistan which the U.S.-led West has said that
was being used as 'safe havens' for terror attacks against
coalition forces in Afghanistan.

Pakistan is at war in the Federally Administered Tribal
Agency (F.A.T.A.) against the extremists, Qureshi said, adding
the country has lost more than 1200 soldiers in this war.

"I must therefore confess to a degree of bewilderment
when Pakistan is seen more as a problem in some U.S. circles
than as a partner in this defining struggle of our times.
There is talk of terrorist safe havens in border areas between
Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"I agree there are Taliban and al-Qaeda elements in
those areas. The rising death toll bears the clearest
testimony to their presence. However they are there despite
our best efforts to dislodge them," he acknowledged.

Force is certainly the most important ingredient in
fighting any insurgency in the short term. However force alone
will never be sufficient, he stressed.

The strategy to combat insurgency must be equally
comprehensive. "The objective is to win the hearts and minds
of the populace so that the Taliban and al-Qaeda find it
difficult to hide in the population," he said.

"Single-minded reliance on force will however result in
further alienation of the populace," the Pakistani Foreign
Minister stressed, referring to intense U.S. pressure on
Islamabad to allow cross-border incursions to flush out
terrorists along the porous Pak-Afghan border.

He said force must be complemented by political,
economic and social engagement.

Qureshi said the Pakistani public rightly sees such
U.S.-led attacks as a violation of Pakistan's sovereignty. "It
hurts us even more when the transgressor is our friend and
ally, the U.S. If there are actions to be taken those actions
will be taken by Pakistan," he asserted.

At the same time, Qureshi acknowledged that things are
not going well in strife-torn Afghanistan where the Taliban
has regrouped and intensified their attacks.

"I can understand the U.S. frustration. Things are going
badly in Afghanistan," he said.

"A large segment of the Pakistani public therefore
believes Pakistan is being made the scapegoat for I.S.A.F. and
Afghanistan government's failings. We are doing our share in
stabilising the situation in Afghanistan," he claimed.

"Our brigade level operations in Bajaur attest to our
commitment. However we must be honest to ourselves that the
majority of Afghanistan's problems originate in and must be
treated in Afghanistan," he asserted, shifting the blame on
the government of President Hamid Karzai.

He said the solution to the problem faced by Afghanistan
lies in closer coordination among the three principal parties
– the U.S., Pakistan and Afghanistan.

"Each partner must also shed preconceived ideas and
notions about the others' actions and motivations. The
approach should be to address the problems rather than scoring
media points," Qureshi said, adding that there should be a
matching response on the Afghanistan side to the border
control measures we have instituted.

He also insisted that everyone should understand that
progress against terrorism will be "incremental."

"It is easy to lose patience in such a conflict.
Disagreements can erupt between allies. However we must not
forget that Pakistan and the U.S. are a team in this war.
Neither can win this war easily without the other," he added.

The minister also sought the support from the
international community in furthering democracy in Pakistan.

"How is a democratic Pakistan better than an autocratic
one in the fight against terrorism? I know there is no such
thing as a panacea. However, I believe that democracy is the
closest thing to a panacea mankind has invented or
discovered," he said.

"There are few people more qualified to make this
statement than us Pakistanis," he said citing the 60 years of
Pakistan's founding and the three major interruptions in its
democratic process. "The total time spent under authoritarian
rule is more than our existence as a democracy," he noted.

"Democracy is the only cure of the difficulties
Pakistan faces," Qureshi added. PTI AKJ