NEW YORK, Sept 21: President Musharraf categorically said on Tuesday that Pakistan would not hand over Dr A.Q. Khan, father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb, for questioning by American investigators.
In an hour-long interview with ABC, he said: "We don't want to make him available because we have good interrogators. I mean, it undermines our own capability. We can do it ourselves. And we have done it. We have shared all the information that we have. So, not only is it a lack of confidence in our capability, but it also shows mistrust in us. It doesn't make us so happy," he added.
US-PAKISTAN TIES: Asked what's the really good thing these days about being an ally of the Bush administration? What's the really good part of it? On the question about US role in South Asia, President Musharraf noted that Pakistan was America's strategic ally in the cold war against Soviet Union but in 1990 in the aftermath of Soviet defeat in Afghanistan US abandoned Pakistan.
He said that the US image in Pakistan became negative because of the sense of abandonment, with four million refugees and with sanctions being piled on.
He elaborated: "Not only that, there were sanctions on Pakistan. So, here was the strategic ally of 50 years, and they are abandoned? They have fought the war, and won the war against the Soviets for you, and they are abandoned? They are put under sanctions? And those who were against you, you are on that side. So, what would the public say? I think it was very negative."
Gen Musharraf responded that the bilateral relations at one level were good, adding: "Pakistan is a developing country. We, too, need assistance in various forms for our development.
We need economic development, in the social sector, ... the best source obviously of assistance is the United States. And the United States is our top trade partner. Our maximum exports are to the United States. So, these are all economic and commercial issues, which are of very direct interest to Pakistan in many ways."
TERRORISM: Gen Musharraf warned the United States it could lose the war against terrorism if it did not address the 'root causes' of terrorism and resolve political disputes, primarily the Palestinian issue.
Gen Musharraf said: "A sense of deprivation arising out of political disputes, and that sense of deprivation, then takes to extremism and militancy, because people are poor, and illiterate, and they get indoctrinated." "So, I think those root causes are not being addressed, and I hope they are, otherwise, we are not going to succeed. We may be winning battles, but we lose the war," he added.
When asked by interviewer: "Do you mean to say, seriously, that the United States could lose the war on terrorism," Gen Musharraf said: "Well, if you don't go addressing political disputes, yes. That is a possibility."
THREAT TO LIFE: Responding to a question about the threat on his life and specifically who is targeting him, Gen Musharraf said: "Many. But basically it's the extremists. Al Qaeda, certainly, because we want to eliminate them, and I make no bones about it.
I have told them that I don't want (them) in Pakistan. You will be eliminated. Either you surrender, or we eliminate you. There is no doubt. But then they have access to our extremist lot, unfortunately, and they equip them and finance them. So, the extremist lot, a nexus between Al Qaeda and our extremists, they are the main people who are against me."
INROADS: President Musharraf claimed in an interview published in Washington on Tuesday that he was making significant inroads breaking the Al Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden, adds AFP.
They included the arrest of some 600 suspects, disrupting the terrorist network's illicit fund-raising in major cities and breaking up long established bases in remote border areas, he told the New York Times. Among the suspects detained were Uzbeks, Chechens, Yemenis and other Arabs, as well as people from Tanzania, South Africa and even China.
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