Pak-India relations: Musharraf urges India to show bigger heart
Says intelligence was caught sleeping on Osama’s presence in Abbottabad.
NEW DELHI:
Referring to the effort to sustain healthy relations between Pakistan and India, former president Pervez Musharraf said on Saturday that it is the bigger nation’s responsibility to show more generosity.
“Compromise should come from the bigger party. India should have a big heart because it is the bigger country,” said Musharraf, speaking at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit in Delhi.
He said that the regional giants had to think out of the box to resolve their differences. The former president pointed out that, in his tenure, they had come close to doing so at least twice. But, as the bigger nation, the onus was on India to show more generosity.
He said that outstanding issues between India and Pakistan – such as Sir Creek and Siachen – were at an advanced stage of negotiation – adding that such issues should be dealt with at the same time rather than following a “step-by-step” process.
During the summit, Musharraf openly criticised intelligence agencies working on foreign soil. When asked whether Osama bin Laden’s undiscovered presence in Abbottabad was a proof of complicity or negligence of Pakistan’s armed and intelligence forces, he said it was the latter.
“Our intelligence agencies were sleeping,” he commented. To this, the moderator of the discussion and renowned television journalist Karan Thapar retorted, India wished them sweet dreams.
Musharraf also pointed out that the US’ Central Intelligence Agency, with all its resources and technology, was unable to discover the hijackers who crashed planes into the World Trade Centre.
Return to Pakistan
Musharraf was brief but emphatic about his political plans in Pakistan.
“I will decide when I have to return (to Pakistan), no one else,” he said. “I have to make sure that the momentum is right. If I raise the momentum and it peters out before I can utilise it politically then my intervention will be of no use.”
Thapar asked him of reports that, when he had previously wished to return to Pakistan, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Kayani had called him and said: ‘Pervez, don’t come now.’ Musharraf smiled and said that the COAS was his own man.
(WITH ADDITIONAL INPUT FROM AFP)
Published in The Express Tribune, November 18th, 2012.
Referring to the effort to sustain healthy relations between Pakistan and India, former president Pervez Musharraf said on Saturday that it is the bigger nation’s responsibility to show more generosity.
“Compromise should come from the bigger party. India should have a big heart because it is the bigger country,” said Musharraf, speaking at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit in Delhi.
He said that the regional giants had to think out of the box to resolve their differences. The former president pointed out that, in his tenure, they had come close to doing so at least twice. But, as the bigger nation, the onus was on India to show more generosity.
He said that outstanding issues between India and Pakistan – such as Sir Creek and Siachen – were at an advanced stage of negotiation – adding that such issues should be dealt with at the same time rather than following a “step-by-step” process.
During the summit, Musharraf openly criticised intelligence agencies working on foreign soil. When asked whether Osama bin Laden’s undiscovered presence in Abbottabad was a proof of complicity or negligence of Pakistan’s armed and intelligence forces, he said it was the latter.
“Our intelligence agencies were sleeping,” he commented. To this, the moderator of the discussion and renowned television journalist Karan Thapar retorted, India wished them sweet dreams.
Musharraf also pointed out that the US’ Central Intelligence Agency, with all its resources and technology, was unable to discover the hijackers who crashed planes into the World Trade Centre.
Return to Pakistan
Musharraf was brief but emphatic about his political plans in Pakistan.
“I will decide when I have to return (to Pakistan), no one else,” he said. “I have to make sure that the momentum is right. If I raise the momentum and it peters out before I can utilise it politically then my intervention will be of no use.”
Thapar asked him of reports that, when he had previously wished to return to Pakistan, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Kayani had called him and said: ‘Pervez, don’t come now.’ Musharraf smiled and said that the COAS was his own man.
(WITH ADDITIONAL INPUT FROM AFP)
Published in The Express Tribune, November 18th, 2012.