MANILA, April 20: President Pervez Musharraf said on Wednesday that he would never allow foreign inspectors into the country to examine Pakistan’s nuclear facilities. “That is tantamount to admitting that we cannot be trusted in our own house,” he told a breakfast meeting of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines.

Asked whether he would allow inspectors from the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to inspect the country’s nuclear facilities, President Musharraf said: “Why?”

“Our nuclear programme is for the protection of the people of Pakistan,” he said.

“You have to understand that this is a very sensitive issue for us.

“And our people are sensitive to outsiders coming into our country asking questions. It’s as though we cannot be trusted,” he said.

“If the IAEA has questions about our nuclear programme then let them ask us. We have nothing to hide.

“We will give them all the information they want but we will not allow their inspectors into our country to question our officials or inspect our facilities.

“If we did that it would be admitting that we can’t be trusted.”

The president said the same also applied to nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan.

“You have to understand that Dr Khan is a national hero in our country.

“We will question him. No one should doubt our intention to give all the facts on this matter,” President Musharraf said.

KASHMIR: The president said efforts would be made to promote peace with India and find a solution to the Kashmir dispute.

He said Islamabad had made resolving the Kashmir issue a priority to market Pakistan as an investment haven in South Asia.

“We need to resolve this issue once and for all in a flexible manner. The time of conflict management is over. It has to be conflict resolution. We must resolve this now or never.”

He said acts of terrorism, like an attack on the recently resumed bus service, ‘must be suppressed at all cost’.

The president said he wanted to correct misconceptions about Pakistan, rejecting accusations that Islamabad supported militants and helped organize Al Qaeda network.

He said Pakistan was willing to give intelligence training as part of counter-terrorism cooperation with the Philippines to support peace talks between Manila and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

FOREIGN INVESTMENT: Speaking at a meeting with the Philippines Chamber of Commerce and Industry, President Musharraf said Pakistan was safe and secure for foreign investment and negative travel advisories about the country were contrary to ground realities.

“The negative travel advisories about Pakistan are incorrect and create negative impression, while in reality Pakistan offers safe environment for foreign investment, we need to do away with negative projections as law and order is satisfactory,” he said.

Referring to talks with his Philippines counterpart Gloria Arroyo, President Musharraf said the two countries resolved to forge strong trade and economic ties.

He said the conclusion of institutional arrangement and the greater interaction between the private sectors of both countries would bolster the bilateral trade to the benefit of the two nations.

The President referred to the Gwadar deep sea port and development of a network of infrastructure and said Pakistan was poised to serve as a gateway for trade with Central Asia and the western parts of China.

EXPATRIATES MEETING: Speaking at a gathering of Pakistanis living in Manila, President Musharraf said Pakistan was focused on internal consolidation through strong economic growth, stability and all-round development.

He asked the Pakistani community to project Pakistan as a progressive and moderate Islamic country.

The president said Pakistan had taken off economically, with both agricultural and industrial sectors set to sustain higher growth.

“We have strong defence and a strong economy, the benefits of economic turnaround are being transferred to grass roots level in both rural and urban areas,” he stated.

President Musharraf urged the Pakistani expatriates to help the government in eliminating extremism from Pakistani society which was vastly moderate but the majority needed to rise against the fringe minority of extremists.

The president referred to a series of macro-economic indicators and said booming construction, telecom and IT sectors were providing employment to thousands of skilled workers in cities. In rural areas, small farmers were reaping the benefits of a package under which credit was extended on soft terms and at low interest rates.

Key reforms under the package coupled with enhanced support price had led to unprecedented cotton and wheat crops, injecting over Rs100 billion into the rural economy, he said. – Agencies