Q&A Pervez Musharraf

[A.Rahman]

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Pervez Musharraf knows how to make a splash with a book tour. In the week that his new memoir, In the Line of Fire, hit stores, the Pakistani President feuded publicly with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, had tea and Twinkies on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, ate dinner at the White House, and was greeted in London by Tony Blair and a leaked British defense document accusing Pakistan's intelligence agency of having ties to al-Qaeda. Somehow, he also managed to squeeze in a chat with TIME in New York.

The Afghan government says Pakistan is responsible for the resurgence of the Taliban.

The U.N. Secretary-General's report says that the foot soldiers of the insurgency are Afghans. I've been saying that for the last three months, even though President Karzai and everyone else says they're from Pakistan. Today Karzai said [Taliban leader] Mullah Omar is in Quetta. This is a ridiculous assertion. Mullah Omar has never come to Quetta. Not since 1995 has he come to Pakistan. He is based in Kandahar and is still there.

There have been recent reports that Osama bin Laden may have died. Do you believe them?

I have no such information. I spoke to my intelligence chief, and he did not substantiate this point.

Do you believe bin Laden is in Pakistan?

These are things that agitate me. I could say he could be in any country. But I never say that because I don't know. We have excellent intelligence sources, so if we don't know where he is, I don't know how anyone else knows. We don't know where he is. We are guessing.

If you sent in a larger number of forces, would you have a better chance of finding him?

We'll go anywhere if we have any indication that he is there. We are trying to look for him. But we're dealing with mountainous areas. There are no roads. These are fiercely independent people--they are all armed, everyone carrying a weapon. This is the kind of terrain we're dealing with. It's not easy

From the Oct. 9, 2006 issue of TIME magazine

[niaz]

I am not a great fan of Pervez Musharraf mainly he lacks the will to tackle the Mullahs and despite the rhetoric of 'Enlightened moderation', has avoided confrontation with MMA on most issues.

However, one has to admit that Mushy is a 'Street Fighter' and resilient. Thats why he is always in the lime light. May be some body up there likes him?

[Awesome]

Ask the mullahs and they'd say he's secularized Pakistan too much. Ask the seculars and they'd say hes not done enough about the Mullahs. Perhaps he really is trying to be just moderate.

[Spring Onion]

Being Moderate is the best. extremism on religious as well as secularism both is abnormal.

[Sid]

Musharraf has lasted for so long because he is at heart a true Pakistani; a MODERATE! The extremist factions of society, the Mullahs and their illiterate followers with closed minds cannot bring him down! Sure, he hasnt been able to confront the MMA and that is his weakness. The army has once again allied with the Mullahs and that is bad.

The only route out for Musharraf is to mend ways with the PPP no matter how corrupt Benazir is since it is a secular party and out of the two evils of the Mullah and the PPP, I'd certainly choose the lesser evil, the PPP.

[melb4aust]

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The only route out for Musharraf is to mend ways with the PPP no matter how corrupt Benazir is since it is a secular party and out of the two evils of the Mullah and the PPP, I'd certainly choose the lesser evil, the PPP.

What , get together with PPP, we all know better may be u2 that the both PPP and nawaz group hasnt done any good to Pakistan instead robbed it.

Musharaf's coordination with PPP would be against the future of Pakistan but will be good for his personal interests then.

Yes, The only way coordination could help Pakistan, if they return Pakistan's money and then spend it for its flourishment instead of stealing more funds .