PAKISTAN: Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, called for a rethink on how to fight extremism yesterday and warned that the Taliban was now a more dangerous entity than al-Qaeda.
He also said that the EU should help Pakistan to tackle the main causes of terrorism, particularly poverty and unemployment, by opening its market further to Pakistan's exports.
"We need market access to expand our industry, create jobs and address the causes of extremism and terrorism. I am not looking for aid - I believe in trade," said Mr Musharraf, who is on a two-day visit to Brussels to meet EU leaders.
In an address to the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee, he strongly defended Pakistan's role in the ongoing fight against al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
"No one should blame us, doubt our intentions or say we are not doing enough to combat terrorism . . . We have deployed 50,000 troops along our borders," said Mr Musharraf, who claimed that Taliban insurgents were now a more dangerous terrorist force than al-Qaeda because of the broad popular support they have in Afghanistan.
He said Taliban fighters were being commanded by the former Taliban ruler, Mullah Omar, from a base in southern Afghanistan, which is at the centre of an insurgency against Nato troops. "This is a new element, a more dangerous element, because it (the Taliban) has its roots in the people. Al-Qaeda didn't have roots in the people."
He dismissed suggestions from EU lawmakers that Pakistan was not doing enough to tackle extremism following a peace agreement signed last week with Islamists in the North Waziristan region. The agreement, which covers an area where Osama bin Laden is reportedly hiding, will lead to the withdrawal of Pakistani troops in return for a pledge of peace from rebels.
The deal is causing concern in the US, which fears it may enable Taliban militia to attack Nato troops in Afghanistan with impunity. But Mr Musharraf said that a rethink was required and a new multi-directional strategy involving the military, politics and reconstruction should be put in place to fight terrorism. "Extremism is a state of mind and cannot be fought militarily," he added.
He also reminded EU lawmakers that it was the US and western powers which created the Taliban during the 1980s to fight against the USSR. "Pakistan is not an intolerant, extremist society as many westerners perceive . . . Whatever terrorism we see in Pakistan was a direct fall-out from the last 26 years of warfare."
Responding to criticism by MEPs of Pakistan's human rights record, Mr Musharraf defended his government, saying that it had worked to empower women by improving their access to political office, the army and the civil service. However, he said grassroots attitudes would take time to change.