UK backs ‘Marshall Plan’ to rebuild Pakistan: Zardari

LONDON: A beaming President Asif Ali Zardari said he had won British backing for the idea of a Marshall plan to rebuild Afghanistan and Pakistan after more than 30 years of a “devastating” regional war.

In an exclusive interview with The Guardian, Zardari said Britain had agreed to lobby the European Union for greater trade access for Pakistani goods and was donating an additional 10 million pounds in immediate relief for victims of the flooding in Pakistan.

He made light of differences over the US-led coalition’s Afghan war strategy, which he suggested this week was heading for defeat. But Zardari made clear that Cameron had failed to obtain specific undertakings on any new measures or practical steps to satisfy his demand that Islamabad needed do more to “close down” terrorist groups operating from Pakistani soil.

“We are already fighting all of these groups, we have lost my wife [Benazir Bhutto] to these terrorists, we have lost 30,000 of our population. I think we are fighting in every possible way we can,” he said. “It’s not something that I need to be told to do. We do it on our own.”

Zardari told another leading British newspaper there was no need to preach to him about terrorism.

“Everybody is sensitive, as we have lost so many people,” Zardari told The Times in an exclusive interview. “So to have your credentials questioned does hurt sometimes. No matter how brave you are, it hurts,” he added.

In spite of the diplomatic row, which caused a furore amongst many back home in Pakistan, the leaders said that they had put their differences behind them. “I think politicians can always come together and find a light in the darkness,” said Zardari.

Zardari said that, as far as he was concerned, the ISI and MI6 “have always worked very closely”. The recent reported cancellation of a visit by an ISI delegation in protest over Cameron’s remarks was a matter of speculation, he said. “[When] the ISI does come here, you never find out. It’s not a publicly announced visit.” He added, “I definitively think that all co-operation will be enhanced. David Cameron is a man I can work with. He can plead Pakistan’s case on the international forum and get us more support which we need to do a better job.”

He also said investment was the key to winning the hearts and minds in Afghanistan and Pakistan. “Some form of Marshall Plan needs to be made for Pakistan. We can win the hearts and minds of the poor people of Afghanistan by giving them a commercial boost, taking them away from the Talibs who are giving them better pay than we are.”

In the interview with The Times, the president also offered a long list of points where he felt that the Nato and US-led effort could improve. “I think the West is trying [to defeat the Afghan Taliban], but they need to do much more,” he reiterated.

Zardari also addressed the issue of ‘poppy growing’ in Afghanistan. The international coalition in Afghanistan should find an answer to the problem by giving farmers something else to grow, he said, adding that heroin is a weapon of war.

“I know it is very difficult, but someone has to do it,” the president said. The Afghan conflict “is the last tail end of the Cold War, which needs to be properly sorted out,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 8^th, 2010.