AP News, June 19th, 2007
Pakistan's foreign minister on Tuesday said his country was not in turmoil and urged the West to do more to help fight militants in the wild frontier region along the border with Afghanistan.
Khurshid Kasuri, in Washington to meet with top administration officials and lawmakers, bristled at criticism that Pakistan is failing to address a rise in militancy in a region where scores of people have been executed for perceived ties with the Pakistani government or the United States _ allies in the U.S.-led fight against terrorists there.
"Has the West succeeded in Iraq? Has it succeeded in Afghanistan?" Kasuri asked in an interview with The Associated Press. "We live in the real world, and in the real world there is no black and white."
The United States is eager to support Pakistan's leader, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, whose country has captured many suspected insurgents and lost hundreds of soldiers battling militants along its border with Afghanistan.
But the Bush administration also wants to show its support for democracy, which President Bush has said is a foreign policy priority. Musharraf came to power in a 1999 coup and has yet to relinquish control of the military.
Kasuri said Pakistan has worked hard to fight militants that were driven into tribal areas during fighting that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the United States.
"A price has to be paid. Unfortunately, Pakistan alone cannot pay that price. The West has to be also sensitive to what has happened," he said.
Kasuri's trip to Washington comes as Musharraf faces the biggest political crisis of his eight-year rule, with thousands taking to the streets to demand the general relinquish power. Lawyers and opposition party members are protesting Musharraf's suspension of the Supreme Court's chief judge.
When asked if the crisis threatened Musharraf's grip on power, Kasuri said, "Why should it?"
"We will accept the judgment of the Supreme Court, and that is a sign of maturity," he said.
Despite the judicial crisis, he said, Pakistan's economic development, foreign investment and democracy continue to grow. "People are living their lives in a normal manner."
Kasuri met Monday with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who signaled the Bush administration's steadfast support for Musharraf.
The United States has been criticized for supporting Musharraf at the expense of democracy in Pakistan. But Rice said the United States is "second to none in continuing to press for openness in Pakistan, for the rights of opposition in Pakistan and for free and fair elections."
Rice said the United States is uneasy about the situation in Pakistan.
But "Musharraf has been a good ally in the war on terror," she told reporters. "Pakistan has come a very long way since 2001 in its commitment to try and root out extremism, to try to make reforms."
Kasuri also said that Britain should not be surprised by the violent reaction in the Muslim world to the knighthood awarded to writer Salman Rushdie.
"I don't think they are surprised," he said. "The Holy Prophet has a certain position among all Muslims. When we talk of a globalized world, we have to be sensitive to each others' concerns."
His comments came as Pakistan's government summoned the British ambassador to protest Rushdie's knighthood. Protesters burned effigies of Rushdie and Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, and a Cabinet minister said the award could justify suicide bombings.
Iran's late spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a 1989 fatwa, or religious edict, ordering Muslims to kill the writer because his book, "The Satanic Verses," allegedly insulted Islam. The threat forced Rushdie to live in hiding for a decade.
