The General In England

On Infiltration in Jammu and Kashmir 

BBC

"There is no infiltration going on at the moment absolutely and I have said it so many times……..there is no official patronage, there is no government patronage on anything. I have been saying thatthere has to be reciprocation, and unless there is reciprocation, all that one tries to do, all that we try todo in Pakistan, gets to a knot because there are definitely elements sympathetic to the freedom struggle inKashmir and these very elements then start blaming the government for a sell out, therefore while we takeaction, while the government take action, there has to be reciprocation from the Indian side. "

"There isn’t anybody in the world who can guarantee that there will not be a single individual crossingacross the border. What one can do is, there is no government patronage, additionally what one can do is toput the army on alert and also send messages all around against the sympathisers, not to undertake anymovement across the LoC and we will take strict action. "

"When I say that there is nothing happening on the LoC I am very sure that there is nothing happening butall that I say is that this situation is not sustainable for long periods. You cannot keep a military on highalert for a long period, and you would not like people to turn their guns against you and undermine your owngovernment because you are selling out because there is no reciprocation coming from the other side. "

The Times 

"There is not one terrorist camp in Kashmir. But if they think I am going to stop even a bird flyingacross the line of control, I will not. I cannot guarantee nothing happens in Kashmir." 

On India-Pakistan Dialogue and Confidence Building Measures 

BBC 

"..there has to be reciprocation, and unless there is reciprocation, all that one tries to do, allthat we try to do in Pakistan, gets to a knot because there are definitely elements sympathetic to the freedomstruggle in Kashmir and these very elements then start blaming the government for a sell out, therefore whilewe take action, while the government take action, there has to be reciprocation from the Indian side."

"We have done much more, we have offered seven confidence building measures, he [Vajpayee] offeredonly two, that is re-establishment of the high commissioners and opening the air space, we said let’s openthe roads, lets open the rail..."

" ...they have not replied. We have offered, we have given seven such agreements which are morefar reaching than what he [Vajpayee] has offered, we haven’t got the reply as yet, so the ball is entirelyin their court. We have said right let’s start talking, we have detailed our High Commissioner, he is goingend of this month, their High Commissioner hasn’t come as yet, by the way. "

Financial Times

 "My apprehension is the slow speed from the Indian side, frankly. But I would say that movement istaking place. We would urge the United States to remain involved so that we enter into a composite dialogue onall issues, with Kashmir as the focus. Because Kashmir is the main issue on which we have had so manyconflicts."

On Indian Distrust of Musharraf [failures at Lahore and Kargil]

BBC

"Unfortunately these are aspersions cast by the Indians..

"there is a lot of distrust and this has all been manipulated after the Agra failure. Now we went toAgra and we drafted a declaration, Prime Minister Vajpayee, myself and the two foreign ministers. We drafted adeclaration and we were about to sign it, so why did we not sign it, is anyone asking why we didn’t sign it? 

On Pakistan's Nuclear Weapons 

The Times 

"Pakistan has no choice but to rely on its nuclear weapons. The other element of deterrence is yourcapability of striking and causing such damage to an enemy that is unbearable to him, and that can be donewith a smaller force,"

"Every country has to survive. Any country which wants to live in honour and dignity wants to preservesovereign equality and its sovereignty. Nobody will compromise with that." 

"When a war starts (you don’t know) what direction it will take because there are a lot of intangibleswhich then come in the way. No sane person in normal conditions can ever even contemplate going into anon-conventional war, but basically the best guarantee is to avoid conflict"


On Arms Sales to Pakistan 

The Times 

"There’s an imbalance which is being created. Don’t let it be created. If restrictions on Pakistanbuying military equipment could not be lifted a similar "embargo" should be placed on India". 


On Democracy in Pakistan and Islamic Fundamentalism 

Financial Times

"There is democracy functioning. There's an elected government in place and there's a local governmentintroduced with a very revolutionary devolution plan, so democracy is functioning very much from the bottomrung of the district level, union councils, sub-division, district, province, and national level and theSenate."

" There is one province which has the religious parties which is functioning through a government by thereligious parties - the MMA. But however, any acts of extremism or extremist acts, implementation of decisionswhich [bring] Talibanisation, Talibanised behaviour are not at all popular, they're not welcomed by the peopleof the Frontier province even"

"The nation is against such extreme views, such extreme dictates. I'm very clear about that, so there'sno danger of extremism or religious extremism or religious extremists taking over Pakistan, there's absolutelyno danger because the people of Pakistan want a moderate, progressive Islamic country. I'm very sure of that,there's no danger."

On Sharia Law 

BBC

"I think this Sharia Law is being overplayed. There is concern, Yes on there may be views which arenot in line with the excepted norms. But this Sharia law was passed by the same North West Frontier ProvinceAssembly many- many years back. We examined it. There is no change from that and this one, it does not containelements which should cause alarm. "

"Other than that Sharia Law, they are imposing certain restrictions, they are acting against Billboards,tearing them down. They are talking of changing the dresses and uniform in schools, they are talking aboutrestricting women and putting them behind veils. Now this is the kind of thing which I am saying is not whatthe people of the frontier province want, therefore we will not allow Talibanisation of Pakistan" 

On his role as President and Army Chief

BBC

"What is democracy? Democracy is the rule of the majority. This very majority in the Centre and inPunjab have accepted my uniform. The Lahore High Court has declared that the uniform does not violate anythingwritten in the constitution. "

"And then do whatever they (civilians) were doing before 1999, where the country was taken to the brinkof being a failed state, having defaulted technically, the economy run down, poverty on the rise. We don’twant that to happen, we will not allow that to happen and therefore reform restructuring will continue and thegovernment is in place, having a majority, and I am sure through a constitutional mechanism, throughinstitutionalised methodology government will keep functioning. "

Financial Times

"I don't want to lay time frames. But the nation is very clear, whenever I give a time frame, wheneverI say something, I do it. Over these three years I proved exactly whatever I said, I did it. By the day, tothe day, accurately I did whatever I said and I made a number of promises and I've delivered on each one ofthem."

"I gave you a roadmap for democratisation, I stuck it to the last word, last element. When you talk oftime frames, if I give a time frame and I don't adhere to it that would be too bad, so I believe in sayingsomething which I will agree to."

"Now why I am creating these doubts - because this is not theoretical. I want to make sure thatPakistan's institutions, democratic institutions function effectively, with stability. Whenever that happens,if it is before three years or two years I'll do that before that. Otherwise I will not do that, becausePakistan comes first and everything else is subordinated to the interest of the nation."

"So this is the issue as far as the uniform is concerned. Therefore I don't give dates really."

On Afghanistan and Al Qaeda in Pakistan 

The Times

"Things are not going as well as one would expect in Afghanistan. There is a vacuum in the countrysideof Afghanistan (and) it must be filled (by international troops) or it will be filled by those hostile topeace." 

BBC

"We have arrested 480 Al Qaeda members and we have arrested 10 Taliban leaders. The latest beingarrested just about a few days back. So this is absolutely a wrong impression (that Al Qaeda is in Pakistan).Ask whoever is operating with us. "

"I can never say that there is nothing happening on our side of the border. Yes, there are and we areoperating against it, the army is there and the civil armed forces are there we have entered the tribal areafor the first time after over a century and we are not being given credit for that. Our government has enteredthe area and we are having military operation in co-ordination with the coalition and the US forces across theborder"

On International Terrorism and Pakistan 

The Times

"If you eliminate a number of terrorists you are just plucking leaves from a tree. If you eliminate anorganisation like Al-Qaeda you have chopped off a branch from the tree, but the tree still exists. You have touproot the whole of the tree," 

"What’s happening around the world is the fallout from the Israel-Palestine issue." 

Financial Times

"We are part of the coalition to fight terrorism. We are doing this in our own national interest and whenI say terrorism as far as Pakistan is concerned we're operating against al-Qaeda, we're operating againstTaliban - members of the previous Taliban government in Afghanistan. And we have our own concern withsectarian extremism within Pakistan."

"We're operating in our own interest against all three of these. This is where we have partnership with thecoalition forces and with the United States and this will go on."

"Other than that, I don't have to go and offer anything. Other than that I'm going there to see howPakistan's own interests can be promoted. "

On Iraq war and the Muslim world 

Financial Times

" It (Iraq) has certainly aroused the feelings of the Muslim world. Unfortunately, all that is happeningaround the world, all the political disputes - one talks of Kosovo or Bosnia or Chechnya or Palestine orAfghanistan or Kashmir or Iraq - involve the Muslims." 

" So therefore the unfortunate effect has been that people in the Muslim world have started thinking thatIslam as a religion is being targeted. Now this is the unfortunate part. They are all political disputes, butthey have taken a colour of a religious dispute." 

"The talk of some clash of civilisation and all that has compounded the issue further"

"We have been asked and in principle we would like to contribute troops (to Iraq) - in principle, but thenwe are studying this from all angles and we will take a decision later."

On Pakistan's importance for the US

Financial Times

"I see realities on ground, every nation has its national interest (in) Pakistan by merely its location,its strategic location and other geo-strategic issues, geopolitical issues, has its potential."

"It has its potential in the Islamic world, it has its potential in the central Asian republics andAfghanistan, it has its potential in relation to the Gulf, it has its potential in relation to south Asia."

"It has its potential because it's a powerful nation itself. It's a nation of 140 million and a nuclearstate. These facts cannot be ignored" 


On Pakistan’s Economy 

Financial Times

"When my government came into being in October '99, I think it was early 2000 or December '99 that I gaveout the focal points of our overall strategy to take the nation forward. And in this year I gave economicrevival at point number one, priority one."

" And then I said poverty alleviation, good governance and political restructuring - these were the fourfocal areas and I pursued these four focal areas with single-minded devotion, and we've achieved a lot in theeconomic field, the whole world knows, the figures are there which are all transparent, we're not hiding atall."

"It's on the internet, everything is transparent, the whole world knows, Pakistanis know, where (is) theeconomy, where we started and where we have gone."