Indians and Pakistanis are going in different directions. Musharraf wants Pakistanis not to be India-Centric.
http://www.dawn.com/2006/03/07/top1.htm
RAWALPINDI, March 6: President Gen Pervez Musharraf has said Pakistan is focused on improving its economy and alleviating poverty and eradicating terrorism from its soil and is not interested in joining a “numerical arms race” with India.
**
“We are pursuing our national interests as other countries do. We are not in competition with India. India has global and regional aspirations. We do not have such aspirations. Our aspirations are defensive. We want to create jobs, reduce poverty,” he told senior media persons of the country invited to his Camp Office in Rawalpindi following the visit of US President George Bush to the region.
President Musharraf described the results flowing from Mr Bush’s weekend visit to Islamabad as “positive”. Pakistan-US relations were institutionalized, broad-based, long-term and multifaceted, he said, advising his countrymen to stop being India-centric.
“They (the Indians) are going in a different direction and we are going in a different direction,” he explained.
**
He agreed when reminded that it was the Pakistani army and the foreign office, which had drummed these India-centric ideas in the minds of Pakistanis over the last 60 years. He felt the government, the foreign office, the political leadership and the media should try to remove this India fixation, but added with a smile:” The army will still remain India-centric for obvious reasons.”
N-PROGRAMME: Discussing specifically Pakistan’s nuclear programme, the president said Pakistan did not need any cooperation from outside for advancing the programme; “it is on and it will go on.”
He said he was willing to buy F-16s if they came under the EAD concessional facility of Non-Nato Alliance arrangement. Otherwise, it would be in the self-interest of Pakistan to spend the money on social sectors to reduce poverty, and spread educational and health facilities.
“How much should we spend on defence? We do not want to spend more on F-16s. We are a poor country. We want to strengthen our economy and alleviate poverty,” he said.
There were other cost effective options as well and other sources for acquiring such weapons systems, he said. One option is the $600 million assistance from the US, half of which is for defence purchases.
He assured the nation that the lethality and the accuracy of the weapons system, which Pakistan already possesses and plans to acquire in the near future, were more than enough to maintain an effective minimum deterrence level and “if at all at some future date, some gaps emerged then we will move quickly to fill them.”
KASHIR ISSUE: He said he was in contact with the US on Kashmir even before the US President’s visit and that Pakistan expected Washington to continue to play the role of a facilitator. “We will have to tackle and resolve the issue at the bilateral level.”
President Musharraf appeared hopeful of progress on his four-point proposal on resolving the Kashmir conflict as he said he saw some discussions going on the self-governance issue. His four-point included: 1. Identify Kashmir as a problem, 2. Demilitarization, 3.Self-governance and 4. Joint management.
He said he did not know why Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had not come to Pakistan so far, “but I would also like to see some substantive progress made when and if such a visit takes place”.
ENERGY NEEDS: He said the US had promised to look into Pakistan’s energy needs and strengthen a broad range of options. “We need energy, we need gas, we need hydroelectricity and we need to add massively to our present energy capacities by 2008-10. The US recognizes this. We are getting one more 300mw nuclear power plant from China. We need a 1000mw nuclear power plant from the US.”
DR KHAN: He said some problems linked to Dr. A.Q. Khan still stood in the way. “Every time a new aspect of the clandestine trade comes to the fore, they come asking why the doctor did not reveal it earlier. And there are two more doctors, Dr Jaffery and Dr Farooq, whom the US wants to interrogate. We will not hand them over to anybody .We will question them using our own methodology and if they (the US) have any questions they can send them to us.”
TRILATERAL GAS PIPELINE: Discussing the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline, the president said that no one (from the US) had ever asked him about this project and referred President Bush’s remarks on the subject at the press conference in which he very clearly said the US had objections to Iran’s nuclear ambitions and not to any other matter.
Since it was a trilateral project, there would be delays in taking the project in hand. “But if the delays are inordinate, we would make it a bilateral project,” he said.