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http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default...0-9-2005_pg1_1
RAWALPINDI: Pakistan’s president said on Friday that Islamabad had proposed setting up a barbed-wire fence along the border with Afghanistan to help keep Islamic insurgents from crossing the rugged area.
But Gen Pervez Musharraf told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview that Pakistan couldn’t afford the major undertaking through mountainous terrain and deeply conservative tribal regions “by itself”. “We could do selective fencing,” he suggested as an alternative to an unbroken barrier.
Musharraf praised Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s efforts to unite a country with no history of national unity and ravaged by decades of war, but said the military needed to improve security.
President Musharraf praised Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as “courageous” for ordering the withdrawal of Jewish settlements from Gaza, but said he didn’t plan on following up a recent diplomatic breakthrough between the countries by meeting him at the United Nations this month.
“Why should there be a rush?” Musharraf said. “We are clear in our stance. We want to progress towards resolution of the Palestinian dispute, and as progress is made, Pakistan would like to keep reviewing its diplomatic stance.”
“I think such actions need courage and boldness,” Musharraf said. “(From) what we have seen on the TV, Israelis not wanting to leave, being forced out, is a courageous thing to do. We hope that he shows (an) equal amount of courage in the final creation of a Palestinian state.” “I can’t really give a (dead) line,” he said about when formal ties could be established, “but I’m always a believer in reacting before events, of foreseeing events and reacting accordingly ... I don’t believe in reaction, I believe in action.”
Despite calls by a hard-line Pakistani Islamic coalition for protests against his initiation of contacts with Israel, Musharraf said the response in Pakistan to the Turkey meeting had been good. “I see a positive response on the domestic side,” he said.
The president said that Pakistan and India were both optimistic about resolving their bitter dispute over Kashmir, and he hoped for a settlement while both current leaders were in power.
Musharraf said he had established a good personal rapport with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The two leaders will meet on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session in New York later this month. “We will discuss Kashmir,” said the president.
“I feel there’s optimism on both sides,” Musharraf said. “There’s a positive response towards the resolution of the dispute on both sides. We need to achieve this within our tenures. That’s the time frame.”
The president confirmed for the first time that one of the suspects in the July terror bombings in London briefly visited a Pakistani Islamic school linked with militants.
But he dismissed suggestions that the trip to a madrassa in Lahore influenced the beliefs or motivations of Shahzad Tanweer, saying it was too short and that Tanweer’s “indoctrination” was likely the result of his lack of assimilation into British society.
The president praised former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s main opposition Pakistan People’s Party, but said she could not become premier again. “Benazir (Bhutto) has had two tenures,” he said. “According to the Constitution of Pakistan at the moment, she is not eligible to become prime minister again.”
But Gen Pervez Musharraf told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview that Pakistan couldn’t afford the major undertaking through mountainous terrain and deeply conservative tribal regions “by itself”. “We could do selective fencing,” he suggested as an alternative to an unbroken barrier.
Musharraf praised Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s efforts to unite a country with no history of national unity and ravaged by decades of war, but said the military needed to improve security.
President Musharraf praised Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as “courageous” for ordering the withdrawal of Jewish settlements from Gaza, but said he didn’t plan on following up a recent diplomatic breakthrough between the countries by meeting him at the United Nations this month.
“Why should there be a rush?” Musharraf said. “We are clear in our stance. We want to progress towards resolution of the Palestinian dispute, and as progress is made, Pakistan would like to keep reviewing its diplomatic stance.”
“I think such actions need courage and boldness,” Musharraf said. “(From) what we have seen on the TV, Israelis not wanting to leave, being forced out, is a courageous thing to do. We hope that he shows (an) equal amount of courage in the final creation of a Palestinian state.” “I can’t really give a (dead) line,” he said about when formal ties could be established, “but I’m always a believer in reacting before events, of foreseeing events and reacting accordingly ... I don’t believe in reaction, I believe in action.”
Despite calls by a hard-line Pakistani Islamic coalition for protests against his initiation of contacts with Israel, Musharraf said the response in Pakistan to the Turkey meeting had been good. “I see a positive response on the domestic side,” he said.
The president said that Pakistan and India were both optimistic about resolving their bitter dispute over Kashmir, and he hoped for a settlement while both current leaders were in power.
Musharraf said he had established a good personal rapport with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The two leaders will meet on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session in New York later this month. “We will discuss Kashmir,” said the president.
“I feel there’s optimism on both sides,” Musharraf said. “There’s a positive response towards the resolution of the dispute on both sides. We need to achieve this within our tenures. That’s the time frame.”
The president confirmed for the first time that one of the suspects in the July terror bombings in London briefly visited a Pakistani Islamic school linked with militants.
But he dismissed suggestions that the trip to a madrassa in Lahore influenced the beliefs or motivations of Shahzad Tanweer, saying it was too short and that Tanweer’s “indoctrination” was likely the result of his lack of assimilation into British society.
The president praised former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s main opposition Pakistan People’s Party, but said she could not become premier again. “Benazir (Bhutto) has had two tenures,” he said. “According to the Constitution of Pakistan at the moment, she is not eligible to become prime minister again.”
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