UNITED NATIONS, Sept 25: President Asif Ali Zardari expressed Pakistan’s firm resolve to combat the scourge of extremism in the world and asked the developed world to help Pakistan fight terrorists.

“We have picked up the torch and will fight against terrorists who attack us, and fight against terrorists who use our territory to plan attacks against our neighbours or anywhere in the world,” Mr Zardari said in his maiden speech to the United Nations General Assembly.

“If Al Qaeda and the Taliban believed that by silencing Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, they were silencing her message they were very wrong,” he said.

He pointed out that “the fight against extremism is a fight for the hearts and minds of people. It can’t be won only by guns and bombs. The fight must be multifaceted.”

“The battleground must be economic and social as well as military. We will win when people are mobilised against the fanatics. To mobilise them we have to give them hope and opportunity for their future. They need jobs. Their children need education. They must be fed. They must have energy.”

He said: “We must give people a stake in their own government, and we must demonstrate to them that democracy does perform, that democratic governance can improve their everyday life.”

Appealing to the international community to help Pakistan become an economically viable state, Mr Zardari said: “A stable Pakistan will suck the oxygen from the terrorists’ agenda. Economic justice and political democracy are the worst nightmares of the terrorists.

“We must all fight this epic battle together as allies and partners. But just as we will not let Pakistan’s territory to be used by terrorists for attacks against our people and our neighbours, we cannot allow our territory and our sovereignty to be violated by our friends.”

Mr Zardari invoked his assassinated wife’s name time and again in his address and said: “The Bhutto doctrine is the new century’s equivalent of the Marshall Plan that saved Europe after World War II. And just as the Marshall Plan was centred on the principle that an economically sound Europe could and would resist communism, the Bhutto doctrine’s pillar is that an economically viable Pakistan will be the centrepiece of the victory of pluralism over terrorism.

“The Bhutto doctrine will ultimately prove to be as critical to the victory of freedom in this century as the Marshall Plan was critical to the triumph of liberty in the last.

“Ours is the Doctrine of Reconciliation. Theirs is the Doctrine of Death.”

He said that Ms Bhutto’s killers “thought her elimination would end her dream of a democratic Pakistan and the balkanisation of our region would enable the forces of darkness to prevail but our nation rallied in the aftermath of her brutal and tragic assassination”.

He said that terrorism could not be fought by military means alone. Fighting it requires political will, popular mobilisation, and a socio-economic strategy that wins the hearts and minds of nations afflicted by it.

In a reference to US and Nato attacks inside Pakistan in hot pursuit of terrorists, Mr Zardari said: “Violating our nation’s sovereignty is not helpful in eliminating the terrorist menace. Indeed, this could have the opposite effect.”

He told the delegates: “We will work patiently to persuade leaders in Fata and our Pakhtunkhwa province to accept the writ of government and turn their back on terrorists. The terrorists can blow up our girls’ schools but we will rebuild them, brick by brick, inch by inch. We are in this battle to win. And we know how we have to do it.

“We may be the targets of international terrorism, but we will never succumb to it. Towards that end, we reach out to you and to the entire civilised world,” he declared.

President Zardari expressed Pakistan’s determination to “peacefully resolve problems with India”, and said the composite dialogue with India would continue “so that our outstanding disputes are resolved”.

“Whether it is the core issue of Jammu and Kashmir, or cooperation on water resources, India and Pakistan must accommodate each other’s concerns and interests; we must respect and work with each other to peacefully resolve our problems and build South Asia into a common market of trade and technology,” Mr Zardari told the international community.

He also reaffirmed Pakistan’s resolve to “work together with our neighbour Afghanistan and the Nato forces stationed there to ensure security of our common border”.

“Better relations between Pakistan, Afghanistan and India would help create the regional environment that is more conducive to reducing militancy in our region,” he observed.