A Pakistani official denied on Sunday that Pakistan was playing a “direct role in arming and financing” the Taliban.
M Akram Shaheedi, press minister at the Embassy of Pakistan, in a letter in New York Times took exception to an article run by the newspaper on March 11 that included the accusation. “The Taliban and Al Qaeda are killings our citizens and soldiers and nearly assassinated Pakistan’s president and prime minister. So how can our intelligence agency ‘play a direct role in arming and financing’ the Taliban?” he wrote. Shaheedi also disagreed with the newspaper article which said that President Pervez Musharraf “has regularly brokered agreements” with Islamists “in the provinces”. The ruling Islamists in the North-West Frontier Province, the embassy official explained, were voted to power in the 2002 elections and the “government respects the verdict of the people”. He quoted State Department official Richard Boucher, who told a Senate committee recently that “Pakistan is enormously cooperative.” No country has captured more Al Qaeda or lost more men doing it than Pakistan”. According to the Pakistani official, improvement of United States-Indian relations is “not at all” a threat to Pakistan. “Pakistan considers it a positive development. Pakistan and India are pursuing dialogue sincerely and are committed to seek out the resolution of all outstanding issues,” he added. |