NEW DELHI: Former president Pervez Musharraf, commenting on al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden’s undiscovered presence in Pakistan, said it was the negligence of the army and intelligence agencies and not their complicity.
“Our intelligence agencies were sleeping,” he said during the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit in New Delhi. Indian TV anchor Karan Thapar replied to this statement sarcastically and said that India wished the intelligence agencies sweet dreams.
Musharraf bluntly criticised the intelligence agencies but also said that the CIA, with all its resources and technology, was also not able to uncover plans of 11 young men who had hijacked their planes from four places and crashed them into the World Trade Centre.
Return to Pakistan
During the summit, Musharraf was brief but emphatic about his political plans in Pakistan. “I will decide when I have to return [to Pakistan]. No one else will. I have to make sure that the momentum is right.”
He added that there is an elected government in Pakistan and the time has to be right for him to return.
India-Pakistan relations
Musharraf said that the outstanding issues between India and Pakistan – like Sir Creek and Siachen – were at an advanced stage of negotiation, and if there was the will (or ‘neeyat’, as he called it), they could have been resolved ‘yesterday’.
He also said that India and Pakistan had to think out of the box to resolve their differences and they had even come close to doing so at least twice during his own tenure. But as the bigger nation, the onus was on India to show more generosity, he maintained.
The former president also held the intelligence agencies and bureaucrats responsible for acting as roadblocks in the normalisation of relations between India and Pakistan, and said that a four-point agreement on critical issues between the countries had nearly concluded but could not be operationalised.
Need to 'bury the hatchet'
Musharraf said that nuclear-armed India and Pakistan need to "bury the hatchet" and settle their differences to reduce poverty and ease tensions in the region.
Musharraf fought against India in the 1965 and 1971 wars and led Pakistan's army in the 1999 Kargil conflict in which militants infiltrated Indian Kashmir.
"We need to resolve the long-standing disputes between India and Pakistan because these are the causes of hatred, causes of conflict and the wars," Musharraf told a media conference in New Delhi. "It's doable."
Musharraf, who ruled Pakistan as a military dictator and later as a civilian president between 1999 and 2008, said the issues between Pakistan and India need to be resolved for the socio-economic development of South Asia, home to hundreds of millions of people living in poverty.
"It is high time we open our eyes to reality," said Musharraf, who had come up with a demilitarisation plan to solve the Kashmir dispute.
"We need to bury the hatchet."
But "compromise should come from the bigger party. India should have a big heart because it is the bigger country," he said.
Musharraf said that all outstanding disputes between Indian and Pakistan should be dealt with at the same time rather than following a "step-by-step" process.
Chief among the conflicts to be settled is the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, he said.
"This is actually the root cause which spawns not only war" but also "religious militancy in Pakistan," Musharraf stated at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit.
Kashmir was plagued by violence for decades as militants fought for the region to become independent or part of Pakistan. While violence has fallen sharply in recent years, simmering tensions remain.
Af-Pak relations
On post-2014 Afghanistan, Musharraf made two points: the solution to Afghanistan laid in the Pakhtun leadership of the government instead of Tajik, Hazara or Panjshiri; and anyone who tried to turn Afghanistan against Pakistan would be taught a punishing lesson.
While rejecting the notion of Pakistani strategic depth in Afghanistan, Musharraf said that Pakistan was a victim of terrorism, but the world must understand the reasons of the origins of Afghan terrorism.
Post 2014, he saw three possibilities: Afghanistan could either go back to the pre-1989 days when the Soviets were still there and the ‘Mujahideen’ were fighting Warsaw pact forces resulting in Afghanistan and Pakistan having to fend for themselves and 12 warlords fighting all over Afghanistan; or post-1996 era when Taliban on the Pakistani side were fighting Panjshiris and Hazaras of the Northern Alliance; while the third was the raising of a capable Afghan National Army with the help of support equipment left behind by the US-led forces.
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COMMENTS (67)
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@Men at their best Pakistan Army: Thank you, Sir for putting it so well!
Indians I can understand your anger and frustration towards president Musharraf.....the reason is simple....he made you all speechless.....in other words he thrashed you well twice.......stop day dreaming about breaking Baluchistan....you are not in 1971......this is 2012...don't you even think of playing nasty with Pakistan....President Musharraf is supported by all those who were benefited by women emancipation, youth empowerment, economic revival, minority rights, free media etc......we have pledged to bring him back democratically again as the supreme commander of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan......
Pakistan First Long Live President Musharraf
Musharraf will never return to Pakistan , he has no support amongst the people, spread by the corrupt politicians from various parties,& repeated propaganda by bias media which people tend to follow, which outputs some calling him coward , he is one Pakistani leader respected worldwide, he will return to contest the elections whether you like it or not.
at least, musharaf and vajpayee tried to come on table............... and showed the world their boldness........ talked over issues........ tried to come over decade pending issues instead of tareekh pa tareekh, tareekh pa tareekh...........................
@G.Din Nixon called Indra and warned her not to intervene in w Pakistan and Seventh fleet was there to help Pakistanis. Read history without bais
@It Is (still) Economy Stupid: Nice try! I admire your Brilliance in dreaming all this up! He's lectured for Sweden, China, Nigeria, Singapore, Malaysia etc. Bribes??!! As for drone attacks its been 5 years and elected Govt has not been able to stop it.
@the truth: he is physically in india.check the photos in indian papers.
In the Kargil war Musarraf allowed all those tribals as well as regulars to take last attempt over Kashmir and end this drama for ever . So the Kashmir issue is now no more an issue , Let the Kashmiris decide that how the entire Kashmir will function as an integral state of Indian union . There is no other option left for Pakistan and if they realizes this fact it is only then there will be peace on their western border . Now India will adopt tit for tat policy to deal with Pakistan ,
Musharraf is a chameleon. Never to be believed! He, as then President & then COAS of Pakistan, must have been the one who approved the plans to give asylum and protection to Osama, must have been the one who chose the safe house next to PMA in Abbottabad, must have made big killing in dollars that is keeping him in regal style in London! And now he talks of ISI sleeping? It is now Pasha's turn to spill the beans! Mushy is a liar who lies with a perfectly straight face. India will never trust him.
The guy is a pathological liar! Every police Ispector is required to know evry citizen who resides in his town. Every military commander knows the resients of civilians who live in his the cantonment. He is talking about intelligence sleeping? It is not the function of intelligence to keep track of residents, but the police and the military in a military garrison to know of every individual living in the area.
Rex Minor
@salim: Its only Musharraf who gets paid $150 to 200K per lecture" This is how bribes are paid to ex Presidents and PM. In some case it is money laundering. This is what he is getting paid in installment for allowing drone attack or other favors he did for other governments. Usually it is through some speakers agency who pays per lecture, whereas that agency has that money paid in advance for next 5-10 years.
Musharraf is a chameleon. Never to be believed! He is the one who approved the plans to give residence to Osama, chose the safe house next to PMS in Abbottabad, must have made big killing in dollars that is keeping him stay in style in London! And now he talks of ISI sleeping? It is now Pasha's turn to spill the beans! Mushy is a liar who lies with a perfectly straight face. India should never trust him.
@Maria: very obvious you listen to the corrupt politicians,who don't have a clue how to fix the problems facing the country, Don't blame great leader musharraf, all the corrupt incompetent politicians are the embarrassment for Pakistan,they are the cause for the problems in Pakistan.
@Bilal: "@Gaurav strong textIt was not heartedness but The phone call from Washington and the seventh fleet presence in Indian ocean which made India to do it……" Ingrates as ever! Seventh Fleet in Bay of Bengal (not Indian Ocean) had already turned tail even before hostilities had ended, as soon as the submarines of the Soviet Fleet bobbed up to the surface prompting frantic calls from US commanding officer to Washington for instructions how to proceed. Nixon- Kissinger ordered retreat. And, the Seventh Fleet packed out of the Bay. Earlier the British Fleet bound for East Pakistan to join the Seventh Fleet had changed direction in the Strait of Hormuz to return home after learning the straits Seventh Fleet was in. About the phone calls from Washington! Those were not made to Delhi but to Moscow urging Soviet Government to intervene with Delhi not to march to West Pakistan. Nixon-Kissinger had lost all clout with Delhi after they tried to dissuade Indira Gandhi from attacking East Pakistan. You believe they would come looking for favours from her after that? Release of 100,000 POW's took place after Bhutto and his daughter came begging Indira Gandhi for magnanimity and only after he had signed the Shimla Pact. Aren't you ever embarrassed to put forth lies as history?
@Bilal: So if, as you state, it was the pressure from the Americans in 1971 that coerced India into making the generous post war agreement, then why don’t the Pakistanis thank the Americans everyday for saving their skin?
@Maria: No facts, no logic! Nice try!
"and led Pakistan’s army in the 1999 Kargil conflict in which militants infiltrated Indian Kashmir."
ET no-one pretends any longer that the people who were involved in Kargill were militants (though that is what Pakistan claimed at the time and even refused to take back the dead bodies of its own soldiers). Even Musharraf has admitted that it was Pakistan's regular armed forces that were dressed up as tribals and sent to India.
@Musharraf: Why should India show 'generosity'? Because it has been attacked 4 times? BEcause jihadis sent by Pakistan have killed thousands of people in Kashmir and made hundreds of thousands of Pandits homeless? Yes pragmatism you can and should expect but if you now think you can simply get India to give up what you failed to snatch from it then you are dreaming. If the solution was as easy as you make it out, then why was it not implemented in the 9 years you were in power? Also the fact that the track 2 people may have been close to an agreement proves nothing. Do you know for sure that both countries would have accepted the solution that the anonymous negotiators had agreed behind the scenes? Your own handpicked successor Kayani for sure had no interest in implementing what you had agreed, so how do you know the rest of your countrymen would have agreed?
His problem was and still is that he spins a yarn so convincingly that he ends up believing it himself and gets into trouble. Then comes the piece-de-resistance when he says lets forget whats happened and move forwards.................how many times ?????
(Or post-1996 era when Taliban on the Pakistani side were fighting Panjshiris and Hazaras of the Northern Alliance"
It means that Pakistan and her Army was completely supporting the Taliban and Extremist forces in Afghanistan. It is result / backlash of the support of this extremists forces that Pakistan is under fire by the same extremist forces which Pakistan supported in 1996 in Afghanistan. For God sake, now Pakistan should not interfere further in the affairs of Afghanistan else, the situation of Pakistan would become worse than now because a day would come when these Taliban / Extremists forces would backlash and there would be no one in Pakistan to stop them.
Dear Musharraf: It is not the era of 1996. You and your government backed Taliban. This Time we Hazaras and Tajik would lesson your babies Taliban the taunting Lesson Inshallah
Musharraf is well pass his expiry date. I guess hindustan times had no better person to invite. There is nothing new in what he said. India needs to realise he has very little following in pakistan and he probably will never return back to pakistan in his lifetime. He is going to be doing this drama about returning to Pakistan to keep getting international attention and make some money in the process.
@Dr.A. K.Tewari:
yeah yeah and India requires no help that y the used Russians help during the Taskent agreement....
India talk about becoming a super power ...you could not control Pakistan till now and want to control the world ....Yeah right...let me laugh first...
@Dr.A. K.Tewari:
yeah you have invest 200,000 Troops who had killed min. 50,000 women and children ......its sick
@poleturtle:
YEAH coward and the rest of the leaders are Hero right...Goula Nawaz and Zardari are doing a very good job and showing their bravery....
the man is important and will remain important...the same way Zardari is our president and is important....
@Raza Khan:
Oh Tax walay bhai.....we the issue is much greater its not like you have not done in any mistake in your life. The bankers are paid 1000x more and still the world saw financial crisis....Im sorry to say Army is not god...even the most powerful armies in the world do mistakes.... And about your so called tax paying..if you think pakistan made nuclear with your tax money than plz WAKE UP...
@Iqbal:
yeah right...and our GOULA Nawaz had no idea wht the Army was doing...yeah yeah
" ... But as the bigger nation, the onus was on India to show more generosity, he maintained. ... "
Sir, how about Pakistan show us what generosity is by freeing Baluchistan ?
@ Indians
Yes and we all know that how much Indians are willing to resolve Siachen issue.
Ha ha... what an irony. A man who ruled pakistan for 10 years and instilled fear of arch enemy india in his people now got refuge in india. whereas pakistan rejected him. Now the loop is closed, he was born in delhi and back to delhi again. No wonder he broke his promise of never coming to india when his visa was rejected few years ago.
@Reallity Check: stupid person he was connected on satellite phone through dubai .he didnot boarded plane to india .do you live in rocks age?
hmm so this is how it goes...
If you want Indo-Pak peace: India has to give way
If you want Af-Pak peace: Afghanistan has to give way
Key takeaway: Pakistan is the victim, it has right its side and we all (ie the rest of the world) just need to recognize it.
@Awan: I listen to the whole bunch like the 'Lion' from Raiwind ( Veena Malik is more entertaining than the example quoted)
Its only Musharraf who gets paid $150 to 200K per lecture from countries like China, Malaysia, Singapore, Nigeria etc.A negative bias will not get you anywhere.
@ Bilal , do you think it was so . That means you still need US help for total collase . Any way as u wish .
@Reallity Check:
I really cannot understand why India allows this man to enter the country. He should NEVER be allowed into the country because he is the mastermind who started the Kargil misadventure that resulted in huge casualties on the Pakistani side and sent Pakistan running back after it got the heat from the Indian army. Pakistani and other international analysts, including at the International Institute of Strategic Studies, have also confirmed it. But the whole story takes a bizarre turn with the attitude of the silly Indian leadership which welcomes dictators, criminals, terrorists and others facing prosecution and wanted by law for their misdeeds. India has huge clout in the international arena and many countries, particularly the developed countries which are fed up with religious extremism and terrorism, would gladly support it if it takes a firm stand against Pakistan which is, as one IMF official recently put it, "poised to fall down the cliff" and will probably do so once the US withdraws from Afghanistan. China, the so-called 'all-weather-friend'', will hardly come to Pakistan's rescue. Its lip service does not help Pakistan. The Arab world, which Pakistan likes to attribute its "culture" to, is equally repulsed by Pakistan. Thus, Pakistan has no choice but to turn to India, the traditional "arch enemy". Strategically, India has a strong trump card in its hand but it is recklessly throwing it away without using it properly. If Mr. Musharraf has any shame -- he was twice refused visa in the past and had vowed never to come to India -- he would not ever set his foot on Indian soil.
@ yes gaurav , its now time for Pakistan to bow down in respect to it's elder brother . And if they decided to remain rigid this time then they will have pay us with interest ,what we have invested to protect our Kashmir so far .
The General has a poor memory as he conveniently forgets that Abbottabad mansion was renovated during his rule ie concrete wall raised to 18 feet with barbed wire and third storey added to the double storey haveli in 2004-05 for a special purpose. OBL along with his wives and children shifted to this mansion on 06 Jan 2006 and lived there for five years plus till his death in 2011 and whereas Musharraf was President Of Pakistan till 2008. Why is he blaming the intelligence agencies now as everything was put in place during his tenure as President and same agencies were functioning under him for two years plus but could not detect any unusual happening including presence of OBL with his huge family in a well protected Cantonment and not to forget his several statements during the last two years of his tenure ie OBL must be either dead or living in Afghanistan ?
@the truth General Musharraf was in New Delhi this morning and I had the opportunity to hear him personally
It has to be negligence because if it's proven to be complicity Musharraf would lose his comfortable safe haven in the UK and would likely end up facing charges in the USA.
He spoke well and in straight lines, not in circles like many others.
You wasted 10 years of this nation and now you are telling us that what is good and what is bad.
Why is this news? This guy is not important. He is a lair and a coward who shoved Pakistan into the lap of the US after 9/11.
As soon as he lands in Pakistan he will be arrested in Bhutto murder charges. So India should do a favour by arresting him and handover to Pakistan. Then he can not just bluff all that time that "when the momentum is right I will return to Pakistan"
@Gaurav strong textIt was not heartedness but The phone call from Washington and the seventh fleet presence in Indian ocean which made India to do it......
This report does not mention the threat he held out to India in trying to make Afghanistan anti-Pakistan. This self-promoting commando just does not get it. Afghanistan is a sovereign nation of sovereign people. They will make their own decisions. Pakistan shall have no say in their decision nor shall be allowed to use Afghanistan for its own nefarious purposes. If Afghanistan tends towards being friendly to India, India appreciates it. India has always had the same sentiments about Afghanistan. We try to be friendly and get along with everyone in the world. It is no wonder that world reciprocates correspondingly.
@salim
People listen to Veena Malik as well.
@Mulla Kuta: Mushy is the reason for all of Pakistan's current problems. Why can't this guy just be quiet and stay abroad. He has caused enough embarassment to Pakistan. The only one who was sleeping and destroying the country was the dictator Musharraf who made the nation unstable!
When elected Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif tried to build a bridge to India for peace, Musharraf spoiled it in no time through Kargil misadventure . In 1999, when he assumed the power, he didn't waste a second begging India for peace talks even on their terms and conditions . Rawalpindi's thinking has always been like this since 1947, They won't let civilian make peace with India while calling the shot from behind the scene , but when get on driving seat, then everything they do become right in the name of national interest and taking big proud in tag of being a man of peace.
It is encouraging that people listen to him world over!
Can anyone explain what the point of Pakistani intelligence services, such as ISI are? Surely it is to protect national security, but all they have done is destabilise the country to a dangerous level with its misguided support for terrorist organisations. It's better that they are closed down immediately.
Well I think Musharaf Sb is confused, he should not give statements like that, he has many fans in Pakistan and it might heart his image. The Indian community have been always over confident and undermining Pakistan. The relation will never become normal without changing attitude and mentality. Atleast two hands required for hand shake.
Doesn't he feel a bit of shame on releasing such statement. He should first reply as to how he forced the intelligence agencies indulge in spying and kidnaping own people.
Our intelligence agencies were sleeping! Why should they be paid from our hard earned tax money?
Musharraf Cheeta. Says what he feels. He isn't a two faced person.
@NK @Reallity Check Musharraf didn't go to India, he addressed the summit via video conference. Get your facts straight before commenting!
p.s. General Saab Karachiites really miss your rule along with Mustafa Kamal. I salute you sir for giving hope to my generation for a better future in Pakistan...a hope that is fading fast nowadays.
India is a big country and it did dispaly big heartedness in 1971 did we not??? 97000 slave labourers let off and Not even Pakistan Occupied kashmir reclaimed. This was wayyyy tooooo much big heartedness India showed.
"Pakistan Army wants to resolve all issues with India and also wants a solution to the Siachen issue, Musharraf said" ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ What makes this ex dictator think that he can speak for the Pakistan Army?
Musharraf had vowed never to go to India after he felt humiliated when his visa was not approved by India in the past. What happened to the resolve? Personally , I am glad that he has gone. Always better to talk and keep communication channels open. Despite Kargil, Musharraf , in my view, genuinely made attempts to improve relations with India. He deserves some credit.
A little rich coming from the man who created the Kargil invasion and then completely dening it. He should know that you never negotiate with terrorists.
The little bit if respect I had for him is gone..
Mushy you are the only hope for pakistan