Worst Job In the World

Worst Job In the World

By Lally Weymouth NEWSWEEK....Published Feb 7, 2009 - From the magazine issue dated Feb 16, 2009

(NSI News Source Info) February 8, 2009: Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani insists his country isn't failing, but needs international help.

Pakistan's Prime Minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, leads a fractious Parliament that is facing at once a major economic crisis, a spreading border insurgency and still-tense relations with his country's powerful military. He spoke to NEWSWEEK's Lally Weymout at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Excerpts:

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani insists his country isn't failing, but needs international help.

Weymouth: I had dinner with Benazir Bhutto before her death, talking about the penetration of Al Qaeda and other terror groups into Pakistan, and she said, "I knew it was bad, but I didn't know how bad it was until I came back here." Do you share her fear?

Gilani: She had a concern about the country because she knew the government was not in safe hands and democracy is the real answer. On the 18th of February last year, when the election took place, it was the pro-democratic forces that won the election in Pakistan. What about Al Qaeda's penetration of the tribal areas, North-West Frontier province, Swat and Baluchistan?

In earlier days … there was no real action taking place in those areas. This time the government is taking serious action against the militants who are coming from Uzbekistan [and] Chechnya, and Arabs and the Taliban. We are fighting them and they are feeling the heat. Even so, aren't you concerned about the lack of government control in certain areas of Pakistan, like Swat? Certainly not. I know U.S. officials are concerned.

We have the will and we have the ability. We don't have the capacity. The capacity I am talking about is the law-enforcement agencies like the Frontier Corps or the police because the Army is not a permanent solution for anything. Therefore we have appealed to the world and to the Americans that they should strengthen the capacity of our law-enforcement agencies. How do you feel about President Obama's election?

We are positive about his election. We think that he will go for a change because military action is not the only solution to the problem. Some new strategy should be evolved. I agree with Obama and I support him nominating an envoy, Richard Holbrooke, for this region because he realizes it is a regional problem. How do you feel about the U.S. raids being conducted from Afghanistan into Pakistan?

My plea would be—as we have a multi-dimensional cooperation with the United States and a strategic partnership—that we should have more intelligence sharing between the two countries. So when actionable and credible information is shared with us, we would be allowed to hit [targets] ourselves instead of the Americans.

It appeared that former President Pervez Musharraf was riding a tiger with Pakistani-based terror groups Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jamaat-ul-Dawa. He would promise senior U.S. officials that he would control such groups, but he did not do enough. Can your government do more?Certainly, yes. We have already arrested the main leaders of Jamaat-ul-Dawa and Lashkar-e-Taiba. We have frozen their accounts and put them in jail and are investigating their affairs. But can the civilian government overcome the Army's sympathy for these groups?

The military and the civilian governments … are totally in line with each other and there is no difference of opinion. They are one and the same.

You are having trouble with your economy, aren't you?

Certainly, yes. When the oil prices went up and the food commodities also went up, we had problems … We are a frontline state fighting against terrorism and extremism, and we are paying a heavy price for that … One suicide-bomb attack creates a flight of capital, and no investment. The world should look after us, and the world should know that we are catering to the needs of 3.5 million Afghan refugees. What do you need from America?

From the U.S., I can say that the Biden-Lugar bill should be expedited. It provides funds for development assistance to troubled areas of the world.

Is there anything you have to say about the attack on Mumbai?

We were having excellent relations with India. We were on good terms with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. But with this incident all of our confidence-building measures became futile. Now you can imagine who is the beneficiary of this—the terrorists. Therefore, I assure you and I assure India and I assure the world that whatever information has been given to us, we will probe into it and whoever was involved we will try according to our laws, and we will not allow our territory to be used for terrorism.