US-Pakistan ties must be based on shared values, mutual respect: Zardari

WASHINGTON : PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari Thursday emphasized that the U.S.-Pakistan relations should not be confined to security cooperation alone but be broad-based as he told a Washington newspaper that violent extremism could only be effectively curbed through a multifaceted approach. He also held out a firm assurance in an interview with The Washington Times that the new Pakistani government would not negotiate with terrorists but it definitely intended to engage local tribesmen as part of its comprehensive policy to wipe out extremism in the long-term perspective.
Zardari pledged zero tolerance for the menace of “terrorism anywhere.”
“The U.S.-Pakistan relationship must be more than a military marriage of convenience. It must be based on shared values and mutual respect.
“If the West commits to a sustained plan of economic and social development for our nation, helping us build an efficient economy, a school system that truly educates, and a health system that protects our people, the danger of terrorism and fanaticism within our borders will all but evaporate,” he stated.
Continuing, the top coalition government leader believed “the U.S. Congress realizes that the key to the strategic interests of the United States in South Asia is the stability of the region, and the key to the stability of the region is a prosperous and democratic Pakistan.
“We believe that the White House has now come to share this view.”
Pakistan, he added, was encouraged by the plan of Sen. Joseph Biden, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to commit the U.S. to a decade of targeted economic assistance.
Stressing on the need for a comprehensive strategy to address extremsim, Zardari pointed out that military confrontation along in the fight against extremism and terrorism has been tried, “and it has failed.”
“It is now time to expand the battle to political engagement, economic and social reform, and the integration of our tribal areas into the mainstream of Pakistani society. We firmly believe that a democratically elected constitutional government with the mandate of the people will have the legitimacy and authority to successfully address not only the extremists and terrorists, but the root-causes of the frustration and hopelessness that fuel the fires of fanaticism. “
Reiterating Islamabad’s position that it would never negotiate with terrorists, he said it fully intended to engage tribal leaders, who have been “abandoned by the previous government and have been co-opted by extremists by intimation and coercion.”
“We will offer the leaders and the people of FATA and of parts of the frontier a much better social and economic deal than they have received from the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
“We will engage them on the condition that they yield their arms and cease their attacks on the Pakistani military and on NATO and Afghan troops in Afghanistan.
There will be zero tolerance for terrorism anywhere.
We have tried confrontation; we have tried battling them; we have also tried ignoring them. It is now time to engage them.”
He said for much too long the United States viewed South Asia through short-term glasses and urged Washington to have a long-term commitment to a democratic and prosperous Pakistan.
“In the 1980s dictatorships were sustained in Pakistan under the rationale of the Cold War. In this young century, dictatorship has been sustained under the guise of a so-called war on terror. All that has been accomplished is to strengthen the extremists and turn the people of our nation away from the United States. This must be reversed by a sustained, long-term commitment to building an economically prosperous, viable and democratic Pakistan.”
In the regional perspective, he said South Asia must become an economic condominium of open markets and open borders.
Zardari called for settlement of the decades-old Kashmir dispute to satisfaction of all concerned parties including the Kashmiris.
“South Asia must become a common market of technology and communications.
“The outstanding issue of Kashmir has yet to be resolved, but it is an issue that must be resolved to the satisfaction of all parties, including Pakistanis, Kashmiris and Indians, if real peace is to be established.”