WASHINGTON, March 5: President Gen Pervez Musharraf on Sunday accused Afghanistan of stirring trouble in Pakistan and said that his country was not seeking N-cooperation from the US.

In a hard-hitting interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, President Musharraf said that Afghan President Hamid Karzai ‘does not appreciate what Pakistan has done for him’.

“He knows how he was elected. If it’s not for Pakistan, his election would not have gone smoothly,” said Gen Musharraf while responding to an intelligence report that President Karzai is believed to have leaked to an American news agency.

In an interview on Feb 18, Mr Karzai urged neighbouring nations to stop meddling in Afghan affairs, or risk seeing chaos spread from a destabilized Afghanistan across the region.

The news agency reported that the Afghan president also gave a list of 100 suspected terrorists to Pakistan when he visited Islamabad last month. The list reportedly contained names, telephone numbers and addresses where Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders, including Mullah Omar, were allegedly hiding.

“Yes, they have given us a list … I am surprised and shocked why they have given that list to the media … there’s no need of releasing such sensitive information to the press,” said President Musharraf when asked if he had received such a list.

“This list was months old and outdated … contained dead telephone numbers … even the CIA knows about it because we have coordinated our actions with them,” said Gen Musharraf.

“There are families living where they said Mullah Omar was hiding in Quetta … I keep going to Quetta and I know Mullah Omar is not there … these kinds of nonsensical (allegations) are not acceptable.”

President Musharraf said he did not understand why the Afghans waited for a presidential visit to convey an intelligence report, adding that the information should have been shared with Pakistani agencies as soon as the Afghans received it so that Pakistan could have taken action.

The president revealed that he also gave him an intelligence report, detailing how Afghan agencies and the ministry of defence were trying to stir trouble within Pakistan.

“I passed him a report on what’s going on in his intelligence agencies and the ministry of defence,” Gen Musharraf said, adding that so far the Afghans had taken no action to stop the activities. President Karzai “should pull up his own ministry of defence”, he added.

The ministry is dominated by the Northern Alliance, which is openly anti-Pakistan and Islamabad believes that members of this alliance are now involved in stirring troubles in Balochistan.

Asked if he was satisfied with President Bush’s visit to Pakistan on Saturday, Gen Musharraf said: “Yes, indeed. Very satisfied. We have very close understanding.”

Describing his talks with the US leader as ‘substantive’, President Musharraf said he was against the ‘India-centric’ approach of some people in Pakistan who compared everything with India. “This tendency of being Indo-centric does not have a rationale,” he said.

He disagreed with a suggestion that President Bush displayed double standards when he said he could not offer nuclear cooperation to Pakistan hours after concluding a nuclear deal with neighbouring India.

President Musharraf said he agreed with the US leader that America’s relations with Pakistan were different from its relations with India. “We are two different countries … have different compulsions, different nuances … Pakistan has a totally different nuance.”

President Musharraf said that countries have to look after each other’s interests even in a bilateral relationship. He said Pakistan did not need to seek nuclear reactors from the US because its needs were different. “We need nuclear energy.”

President Musharraf said that President Bush did not ask for allowing US officials to interrogate Dr A. Q. Khan about his alleged involvement with a ring of nuclear smugglers. “We (already) have a methodology (for interrogating Dr Khan and sharing information) which satisfies mutual concern,” he said.

He strongly criticized a Washington Post editorial which accused him of reneging on his previous pledges to restore full democracy to Pakistan and claimed that he has no intention of quitting his position in the army even after the 2007 elections.

“The Post is not aware of our environment … what’s democracy, the Post does not know,” he said.

The president said that he has introduced a sustainable democracy in the country and has empowered people by re-introducing local government. The media, he said, were freer than ever before.

“I, myself, was elected by a two-third majority of the parliament. I hope Post knows that’s democracy.”

Asked if he would quit the army after the 2007 election, the president said: “Let the next year come … (let’s see) if the nation needs me … I will abide by the Constitution.”

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