Zardari admits terrorism nurtured by govt for tactical use

9 Jul 2009, 0120 hrs IST, Omer Farooq Khan, TNN

ISLAMABAD: In an astonishingly candid admission - a first by any Pakistani head of state - president Asif Ali Zardari has admitted militants and Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari. (AP File Photo) terrorists were wilfully created by past Pakistani governments and nurtured as a policy to achieve tactical objectives. "Militants and extremists emerged on the national scene and challenged the state not because the civil bureaucracy was weakened and demoralized but because they were deliberately created and nurtured as a policy to achieve short-term tactical objectives. Let's be truthful and make a candid admission of the reality,'' he said at a gathering of civil servants in Islamabad on Tuesday night. "The terrorists of today were heroes of yesteryear until 9/11 occurred and they began to haunt us as well,'' Zardari said, emphasising that Pakistan can't be left alone at this stage of the war on terror. He also pointedly said that the future generations won't forgive the current leadership if it does not take corrective measures. India has long charged Pakistan with sponsoring terrorism in Kashmir by providing arms, ammunition and training to the militants who have been engaged in a war of secession. Zardari's admission is bound to create a major flutter in Islamabad, particularly within the Army, which has historically been the author of Pakistan's India policy. "Pakistan is a frontline state in the war against terror and we have pledged to eliminate this scourge. I have taken charge of the country at a difficult time and will meet the challenges facing the country,'' he said. Criticising former military rulers of Pakistan - in itself an act of derring-do - Zardari said concentration of power in one individual was against the spirit of democracy and good governance; power must be dispersed. "Too much power in one hand lasts for a short time,'' he said. "For power to be effectively used for long lasting public good, it must be dispersed as widely as possible,'' he added. These admissions come days after Zardari, in an article in an American daily, accused the US of fomenting militancy in Pakistan. "The West stood by as a democratically elected (Pakistani) government was toppled by a military dictatorship in the late '70s. Because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the West used my nation as a blunt instrument of the Cold War. It empowered a Gen. Zia dictatorship that brutalized its people, decimated our political parties, murdered the prime minister who had founded Pakistan's largest political party, and destroyed the press and civil society,'' Zardari wrote in the Washington Post. "Once the Soviets were defeated, the Americans took the next bus out of town, leaving behind a political vacuum that ultimately led to the Talibanization and radicalization of Afghanistan, the birth of Al-Qaeda and the current jihadi insurrection in Pakistan.'' "The heroin mafia, which arose as a consequence of the efforts to implode the Soviet Union, now takes in $5 billion a year, twice the budget of our Army and police. This is the price Pakistan continues to pay,'' wrote Zardari in the article, `The Frontier Against Terrorism'. It wasn't evident whether Zardari was referring to the Taliban or terrorists operating in Jammu and Kashmir. The Pakistan Army is currently engaged in a debilitating war with the Taliban in the Swat Valley. Of late, it has shifted focus to the militants operating in the South Waziristan in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) along the border with Afghanistan. Zardari further said dialogue was the chief "weapon'' his government would deploy for national reconciliation. "We intend to keep all political forces together in a harmonious relationship as we can't afford political games and confrontational politics,'' he said. Responding to suggestions by former civil servants, he said he was taking several measures to improve governance, tackle militancy and extremism, apart from strengthening institutions and devolving power.