Pakistan moving away from extremism: Khar

Ex-foreign minister says Pak-US tires are not going to change much under Trump

Pakistan’s former foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar has said Pakistan is one of the few countries which is moving away from extremism and coming towards normalcy.

“Whereas the rest of the world is moving towards extremism, Pakistan is perhaps one of the only countries in the world which is veering away from extremism and coming towards normalcy,” Khar said in an interview with Russia Today (RT) television.



The former foreign minister said the US policy for Pakistan was not going to change under administration of the president-elect Donald Trump, adding that the Pakistan-US relations through various administrations had been somewhat consistent in the past ten years.

Talking with reference to the US-drone attacks, Khar said the world was becoming a dangerous place, because, in her view, important, powerful countries were happily going outside of what is considered to be international law to get their short-term objectives.

“So, it’s a fight between winning the war, or winning the battle. I think we have so far – when I say ‘we’ I mean the international order so far – has chosen to win the battle at the cost of losing the war,” she said.

Rejecting the claim that Afghan Taliban were still finding refuge in Pakistan, she said  Pakistan struggles with being able to manage the disproportionate challenge, which even Nato could not tackle.

She said the current dispensation in Pakistan – the ‘deep establishment’ or the ‘deep state’ in Pakistan – are all on one page on the issue of ensuring that no element which uses violence finds place on Pakistani territory.

Talking with reference to the threat of Islamic State in Pakistan, Khar said a lot of militant elements have tendency to latch on their name to some big events.  “Of course, many small splinter groups within Pakistan which are very keen to be able to associate with the bigger IS phenomena,” she added

She said having any foreign troops in any region and particularly Afghanistan for a long term is counter-productive, as it gives weight and narrative to the extremists.



The former foreign minister reiterated her comment that the US prefers to work with military regimes in Pakistan, as opposed to civilian governments. However, she said it was not due to such regimes’ ‘efficiency’.

“If you look at Pakistan’s history, military governments have always come in at a time when there’s been immense regional flux, or there have been incidents within the region or within the world which would require quick answers. Now, we have seen, again, through history that quick answers are not always the best answers,” she said.

Khar said Pakistan is far too advanced in its democratic journey to ever revert to military rule.

“Pakistan has been led under military rule for almost half of its history, and instead of solving the problems, every time a military ruler has existed, he has created a whole bundle of new problems for Pakistan,” she added.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 26^th, 2016.