Terrorism a by-product of Pakistan's past mistakes: Zardari

Anti-Zardari protesters await the arrival of President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan who made a special address on “Pakistan: Strategic Challenges & Opportunities", at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London on Friday. Photo: AFP

President Asif Ali Zardari has revealed that extremism was a by-product of Pakistan's past mistakes and was deliberately created during the 1980s.
He said the employment of a liberal policy encouraged religious fanaticism and achieved of certain strategic objectives of terror perpetrators.
"What we are witnessing today is the outcome of that policy of the 80's and even earlier. The policy of using religious extremism as an instrument of war. We in Pakistan have paid a very heavy price for this policy," The News quoted Zardari, as saying.
Addressing a gathering at London's International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS), Zardari pointed out that militants and militancy were not created in a vacuum; they have been the product of a deliberate policy to fight the rival ideology.
The free world adopted a novel strategy that was based on the exploitation of religion to motivate Muslims around the world to wage Jihad, he added.
Furthermore, Zardari pointed out that the strategy may have worked well but some serious mistakes were also made as the world abandoned Afghanistan in a hurry and no thought was given to its stability after the withdrawal of foreign forces.
"After the retreat of foreign forces, Afghanistan was abandoned and left at the mercy of the warlords and the Jihadis...Pakistan has suffered more than others. For decades we had to host and continue to host millions of Afghan refugees," he said.
Zardari took issue with the accusation that many of the terror plots unleashed against the world originated in Pakistan, but acknowledged that many "passed through" his country.
"We are determined not to allow anyone to use our territory against a third country," he said in an address at the International Institute of Strategic Studies.
He said Pakistan was fighting the "mindset" which led to the planning of attacks against Western forces in Afghanistan and to the attack which killed his wife, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, in Pakistan in December 2007.
"All I can say is that we are doing what we can. It is not something that can be done overnight," Zardari said.
But the civilian government, by deposing of the military-led administration of president Pervez Musharraf, had "taken the initiative out of the terrorists' hands."
He called on the West to do more to support his government "to fight the militants.
"We urge the world to provide us with law enforcement and counter-terrorism capabilities," said Zardari, whose son Bilawal, a student at Oxford University, was watching his father from the front row at the IISS event.
The president said that after seeing his wife pay "the ultimate price" to establish democracy in Pakistan, he would do everything in his power to ensure democracy took root in the country.
"We have not come this far at this price, to fail," he said.
India has claimed the attacks in Mumbai last November were masterminded from Pakistan, while three British Muslims were convicted this month of plotting to blow up transatlantic jets in a plot prosecutors said was directed from Pakistan.