Rising Leaders Youth Conference with President General Pervez Musharraf
September 17, 2005

Transcript

DCM Mohammad Sadiq: National Anthem

(Salman Ahmed plays Pakistan’s National Anthem)

DCM Sadiq: Thank you very much Salman Ahmed. A round of applause for Salman Ahmed. Now we start the proceedings with Talavat-e Qur’an-e-Pak. Rising leader, Mubashir Dastagir will present Talavat-e Qur’an-e-Pak.

Mubashir Dastagir: (Arabic) Now I will read the translation to this ayat. “But those who had been granted true knowledge said, At last for you the reward of Allah (SWT) in the hereafter is best for those who believe in work and righteousness, but this none shall attain save those who steadfastly persevere.” Thank you.

DCM Sadiq: Thank you, Mubashir Dastagir. It’s the first Rising Leaders Conference where I’m not going to speak. I’ll just make two comments. Three years ago, when we started the internship program at the Embassy, which finally led to the movement of Rising Leaders, President of Pakistan was the first visitor from Pakistan who met with the interns. You had seen the slides of that meeting a little while ago. Secondly, today in this hall, the average age is 24 years. It’s a very young, promising age. Ladies and gentlemen, I request Ambassador of Pakistan, His Excellency Jehangir Karamat to welcome the President and welcome the real guests of today, you, to this hall. The Rising Leaders initiative would not have developed without the support, direction and guidance of the Ambassador.

Ambassador Jehangir Karamat: Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, the President is here because you are the most important asset that Pakistan has. Not only are you incredibly educated and talented but on a daily basis, you do more to make or break Pakistan’s image than anyone ever could. Every time you discuss your heritage with a friend you create an image of what Pakistan is. When you excel at school, or at work, you create an image of Pakistan. When you are kind to your neighbor or give charity or volunteer your time, you create an image of what it means to be a Pakistani. This is extremely important for us. You have achieved a great deal and will achieve even more in the years ahead as you become the leaders of this nation because you are mainstream America. I want to tell you that we are proud of you and Pakistan is proud of you.

As Pakistani-Americans, you have a much greater responsibility and role than resident Pakistanis. You are part of mainstream American society and you have the potential and opportunity to be a great asset for your, for this country, your adopted country, and for your native country, Pakistan. You will face challenges and I know that there are problems. I also know that you can meet these challenges and overcome all problems to realize your potential. You have our full support and the Embassy will continue to help you in every possible way. I’m sure you will learn a great deal from this session and we are looking forward to learning from you. And let me assure you that this dialogue, which we start and we’ve had before, will remain on-going. The Embassy and I are here to support you and your efforts. I encourage you to stay in touch with the Embassy and invite you to visit us at one of our many events. The community is our priority and we are here to make sure that it stays that way.

With that, I would now like to introduce you to the, to you the President of Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf. He, he doesn’t need an introduction. He is a leader who is committed to building a better Pakistan, for this generation and for the generations that will follow. Ladies and gentlemen, the President of Pakistan.

President Pervez Musharraf: Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much everyone. Bismillaharahmannirahim. Ambassador Jehangir Karamat, Minister, distinguished guests, most of all the young Pakistanis and ladies and gentlemen. It is a, a special privilege, a unique privilege to be addressing these distinguished youngsters here in New York. We admire your concern, your love for Pakistan and we will always remain supportive of you and back you up as the Ambassador has said, the Embassy’s task is to back you up and as the Ambassador has said, whatever you do, in your fields of activity, in your spheres of interaction, creates an impact of Pakistan. You are the ambassadors of Pakistan. Each one of you and we are proud of you. We are proud of you because I know that you have concern for the nation. You have concern for your roots and those concerns should remain. Our task is to make you proud of your roots. That is our task and your task then is to convert that pride into action wherever you are for the sake of Pakistan, for the good of Pakistan, the name, wherever you are.

Having said this, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to come to the main subject of informing you whatever I think of whatever is happening in Pakistan domestically and externally in Pakistan in a brief manner. Pakistan is passing through a very critical stage or I would like to say even the world is passing through a critical stage. So much is happening in the world, in the Muslim world, in the Ummah, in our region and domestically within Pakistan, that it is incumbent on all of us, all Pakistanis to first of all have unity of thought and action, give all unity of thought and action and secondly, understand issues with clarity and as far as the government is concerned and the leadership is concerned, to act on events and not react after events. To foresee events and act on whatever is required and not react after events. That is what any dynamic society, any dynamic government ought to be doing. So these are the two essential elements of governance and what we are concerned with.

As brought out by the Ambassador again that you are the main pillar of the nation, the youth of Pakistan. Because you are roughly, if the people sitting here are under 30, then you should be more than 25% of Pakistan’s population. And also, since we’ve reduced the voting age to 18 from 21, you are all the more important because you will not only compete for leadership in Pakistan, but you will also vote for the future leaders of Pakistan. Therefore, you’re important. Therefore, all of you must remain conscious of certain things that I would like to tell you. Firstly, that Pakistan’s future is in your hands, will be in your hands. You are the future leaders of Pakistan and one shouldn’t shrug this off as just a passing remark. Afterall, many years back, I was like you. I never knew that I’m going to rise to become even the army chief, least of all becoming the President of Pakistan. So therefore, one doesn’t at all know what destiny holds for anyone. I never knew that so therefore I say you are the future leaders and you are to be taking yourselves seriously because you don’t know what destiny holds for you in the future.

Secondly, what I would like to say is, Pakistan’s honor and dignity is in your hands. You need to be proud of yourself, proud of Pakistan and whatever or wherever you talk you should be conscious that you ought to project the good of Pakistan. Therefore the nation’s honor, your nation’s honor and dignity is in your hands. The third point I want to make is we are the going generation. I am the going generation. You are the coming generation of Pakistan. My desire and wish is that we pass the baton on to you with Pakistan on the rise. Pakistan leading and not Pakistan trailing behind and stuttering. That is what my wish and desire is. Inshallah we will do that. Inshallah when we pass the baton on to you, you will see Pakistan on the rise and going forward. Then on it will be your responsibility to take it to new heights.

Then, the last point that I want to obviously make after having said all this, is that you cannot disappoint the nation. You have to take the nation seriously. You have to take your responsibility seriously and always consider Pakistan comes first in whatever you do in your lives so that you equip yourselves for your responsibilities in the future. I may also tell you with my five or six years of experience that any doubts that Pakistan when I came onto the scene in 99, I, even me, I, myself, had doubts whether Pakistan can turned around. Do we have the potential; do we have the where with all? Does Pakistan inherently have the capacity to be progressive and dynamic? And after 5, 6 years of experience let me honestly tell you, and I’m not saying that just because you are talking to Pakistanis and let’s feel happy about it, I feel and I am very sure that Pakistan has all the potential. What does a nation need? I sometimes keep thinking, what does a nation need to be big and progressive?

Number one, a nation has to have fertile land to be self-sufficient in food and I think we have the most fertile land in the world, probably. The fruit and vegetables that we can grow, the crops that we have are maybe the best in the world. It also needs water. There are many countries in the world who don’t have a drop of water. There are six rivers going and abundant more smaller rivers. Abundant water. Then it needs energy to survive. We have the cheapest form of energy, hydro-electricity. We have the capacity to make hydro-electricity, almost double our present requirement. If we haven’t done that, it is our fault, but God has given us the capacity. We have coal, the biggest, one of the biggest coal reserves on earth. We can make electricity from the coal that we have which is sufficient for the entire needs of Pakistan. If we haven’t done it, it is our fault, but the resource is there. We have gas, abundant gas by the way. And we have oil also, not in abundance but reasonable amount. We have sun and wind. For the first time there are 100 mega watts wind mill plant coming up south of Wadeem. It’ll be on the main grid by December this year. And there is a total capacity of 10,000 mega watts from wind alone. This has been carried out with this we know through research that we are doing since the last two years. So, abundant energy. Natural resources. I don’t want to get into details. We have abundant natural resources in Pakistan. And many areas unexplored.

Then, people, the capacity of the people. We are hard working. We are a nation of 150 million people. Hard working people and then the mental acumen, the brilliance. I think we are second to none. Maybe as a nation we can be counted among the brilliant nations of the world. You yourselves are here in New York. I have traveled all over the world, even, in my, as a junior officer in the army. I know that our competence is second to none. So what was lacking? Why is it that we, this nation, this great nation, with all the potential was yet going to be declared a failed state and a defaulted state? Only one thing was lacking: the failure of leadership. Leaders were failing, not the people of Pakistan. It was the leaders which were failing. It was their corruption. It was their nepotism which were the two main malies of Pakistan which remain so. That is why Pakistan was going down. So therefore this long lecture to you, don’t fail as future leaders of Pakistan. If you fail, God has given us everything, it is only the leadership which will fail and you can’t afford to fail us. You can’t afford to fail your country.

Now, I had noted four more points which you must understand in your various capacities that we are living in a globalized world, an interactive world. What are the demands of this interaction and how important this interaction is to progress and prosperity of a nation? Firstly, we must understand that this is an inter-dependent world. No economic progress, no prosperity is possible if we don’t interact harmoniously with the rest of the world, most of all with the developed world because they hold the key to knowledge, they hold the key to prosperity, economy. Therefore, it is in incumbent on us to interact in a harmonious manner with the entire world to form a useful part of the community of nations to derive advantages to ourselves. The second point, you must remember that there is no absolute sovereignty in this world. A lot of people keep talking very vaguely on our condition. There is no absolute sovereignty. Maybe there is only one super power where you are living which can be said to be sovereign. Sovereignty is directly related to your dependence on anyone. If any state is giving you oil, or hundred thousand barrels or they are financing you, that much you have compromised your sovereignty to that state’s hand. So you reduce your dependence, your sovereignty increases. So your sovereignty really is directly dependent on the degree of dependence that you have on any other nation. So therefore, if we are to be sovereign we must reduce our dependence on anyone and we are to depend on ourselves, on our own potential-that will enhance our sovereignty.

Thirdly, the honor and respect on any individual outside you, outside Pakistan is directly related to the performance or the standing of the nation internationally. Your respect will be enhanced directly related to the respect of Pakistan. If Pakistan’s respect and honor is down and we are much maligned, I think you will be in trouble here and if our reputation, our honor, our dignity is high, so much you will be respected abroad. So therefore it is our job, to enhance the dignity of the nation for you to be better placed here. The last point that I want to make is nations develop relations with each other based on interest. There is no love affair going on in any nation, between nations. It’s all a matter of interests. And therefore, and no policies are constant, it’s only interests which are constant. Policies change with changing environments. Dynamic nations keep watching and seeing developments and act through a projection of the future, so policies remain changing and in flux in accordance with environments. Interests never get compromised. So these were the four points that I thought I must tell you.

Now, I would like to come, to let us look at Pakistan. Where is Pakistan today? And I’m not going to go into details again. I’ve spoken at so many places so I will just be touching on various areas. And what does the future hold for us? I will leave the past behind. I don’t think in the past our performance was good. I keep saying the generation immediately after independence did a great job of Pakistan. That was my senior, our senior generation. They established Pakistan, they created it, they upheld it, they stabilized it from a position where the world thought that we won’t survive, we won’t live. They made sure that we lived. They did a great job.

Then came our generation. I think our generation failed. That is what my assessment is. We failed to maintain that momentum and we started stuttering around and we took the state, the ship of Pakistan into high seas in a rudder-less position. I keep, that is the synonym that I get out of it: a ship in high seas without any rudder, moving in any direction without any end goal, without any strategic perception, without any strategy clear what is the direction, where are we headed? So the most important part of analyzing the strategy, the end objective and then finding a root to that end objective. We didn’t know the final objective. See, we were roaming around all over the place.

So now is a time when I can proudly say we have strategized on everything and I think this is the lesson that I want to pass onto you, in anything that you to do, you have to have the strategy correct first of all and tactics follow. The modalities to reach an objective strategy defines where is the objective, what is the objective and then the modalities, the tactics follow after that. Always strategize in whatever field, in whatever you want to do. We have strategized everything under the sun. I can proudly say that. Now I have no intention of dealing with each one of them but I could standing here give you the strategy on each and every aspect of national governments, governance whether it is economy, poverty alleviation, education, health. Anything, you name it, I will give you the strategy we have made. So therefore, we have strategized and we are going in a direction. Our end objective is clear and we have evolved tactics and we are moving ahead towards that end objective. Inshallah, with each and every passing day, with every passing month and year, we will keep nearing that end objective.

Now, as far as the economy is concerned, this is the core of everything. If the economy is not there, if you cannot economically sustain yourself, no nothing can be done. In any sphere of activity, so therefore economy was the first thing we attacked and I won’t go into details, we, now all microec, macroenconomic indicators are positive. We have a vibrant economy growing at a rate which now is being quoted as a model, as an example of third world turnaround by all international finance instituitions. So that is what we have done with the economy of Pakistan. [Applause] So it’s a vibrant economy. GDP growth: 8.4 %, foreign exchange reserves equal to 11 months of imports. Debts going down and debt to GDP ratio gone down from 100 to only 60%. Your entire figure, exports gone up by 110% your revenue collection gone up by another over 100%, your credit rating very high. Much higher than where we started. So all the macroeconomic indicators are in place and we are moving forward and I am sure that this growth will be sustained. Now, having done that we need to transfer that to the people of Pakistan and that is exactly what we are doing and it is happening. We have to, with this growth we have to address poverty alleviation and unemployment. We have strategized that. We thought of, where, where lies poverty in Pakistan? Where is poverty? It’s in the rural areas, 70% of population. It’s in the urban areas where there are educated people, and not getting jobs, unemployed and then there are uneducated people who are still looking for jobs and unemployed. So the rural areas we thought agriculture and aggregation industry. I don’t, I won’t go into details, we addressed both and I think there is a boom going on in agriculture sector today.

We need, we are trying to bring about a white revolution in Pakistan because Pakistan is the fifth highest milk producer of the world. I don’t know whether you knew of that. But we don’t produce any cheese and butter and if we go to PIA we, we are having butter which is of I don’t know, Holland or someplace when you open the cheese, or…we are the milk producer, so what is wrong? If you take tinned fruit, if you are talking of fruit processing, it’s from some foreign country, but we have the best fruit. So why is it that we not into food and fruit processing? Why is it that we are not in dairy? We are doing that, but in any case, other than that, agriculture itself, the growth, our major crops bring in more land under cultivation increasing yield, yield intensification. All that is being addressed and I can proudly say just on two crops, wheat and cotton, just on these two crops, the infusion of money into the rural areas is 150 billion rupees in the last two years. So that affects poverty in the rural areas.

Then, let’s come on to the city, our educated unemployed. What is the shortest way of making sure that they get employment? We thought it is telecommunication and information technology. How is it that India has billions dollars of IT industry while we have under 100 million dollars? We don’t speak English better than them? I think we speak English better than them. [Applause] So why is it that anyone who is wanting to outsource from here goes to India and not to Pakistan? So therefore, there was something wrong inherently. The internet connectivity in Pakistan was restricted to only 29 cities in 2000. Now, it is in 2000 cities in these 5 years. The bandwidth, the, the fiber optics connectivity was restricted to only 40 cities, now it is about 1000 cities of Pakistan. The bandwidth cost if you want to bring information technology in to reduce the cost, you will be surprised the cost was $86,000 for 2 megabytes now it is $2,500 for 2 megabytes. And therefore there is a boom in call centers of software houses, software parts. And I think if we sustain it, if we work hard to draw investment, if we improve the environment of Pakistan so that the investor feels comfortable with us, I have no reason to believe that we cannot draw IT investment in a big way into Pakistan.

In the telecommunication sector, there is a boom going on. That is because I keep saying, telling everyone in a lighter way in that we have a “hor ki hal hai” syndrome. Where we want to ring up, sitting here and first talk to her mother, then her father, then my sister, and my brother, and my cousin, and my uncle and my auntie. Each one of them, one by one, then the other person will take and ask the same question again and when all that is consumed we will say “hor ki hal hai?” and then we need to talk more. [Applause] So, so we realize this is and how is it then we saw that the tele-density was 2.6 percent. Miserable, that was miserable. Six line, mobile and WLL, wireless local loop. Wireless local loop was not there in Pakistan. So we took stock of the situation. The problem was that there was a monopoly; there was one PTCL, Pakistan Telecommunication Limited, which had no concept of corporate world. The rates were very, very high and who is going to come and invest?

And then we were, we are very, very generous when it comes to state money and state funds. We had given licenses to three mobile telephones free of cost. Just free into a virgin area, virgin country of 150 million people and free license being given. I came to know that some countries, I don’t want to name them in North Africa, 20, 30 million, 15 million and they give in 100 million dollars, a license. So obviously we floated license, we gave 2 licenses, 291 million dollars each. Varek and Telenor (inaudible names) international companies and good thing, good news is that those three, the previous ones, their licenses are finishing. They came for renewal. I said 291 million dollars, first please. [Applause] And they’re agreeing, obviously they see this 150 million population. They are agreeing to give. They will give and if they don’t, thank you very much, we will get somebody else.

So IT is booming and let me give you a rough figure, two years back there were only 600,000 mobile telephone connections in Pakistan. Do you know where we stand today? Fourteen and a half million in two years. And do you know what Nokia told me when I went to Sweden, Nokia. Huh? Finland, Finland, Finland. Sorry, my geography may be a little poor, though it’s not poor. My geography is very good, by the way. In Finland, when I went to Nokia in Finland, they gave me a presentation and they projected Nokia sale in the world by 2007, they said Pakistan will be the second highest market of Nokia in the world and they projected that our Nokia, mobile telephones in Pakistan will reach something like 30 to 35 million in another two years. Look at the market and when you are talking of, if you change this into money, let me give you, my mathematics is also very good. I got 100 out of, I got 100 out of 100 in metric. (inaudible. Laughter). [Applause] Thank you for the clapping, but I won’t give you the marks in the other subjects. If you take that there are 14 mobile telephones which have increased in the past two years, multiply this figure by about 10,000 rupees each mobile telephone, on the average. It is 140 billion rupees. So therefore, the people of Pakistan have purchased only mobile telephones worth 140 billion rupees. Is this the rich who have bought it? Rich already had. Rich are all those 600,000. It is the “chapri wala.” It is the, the, my chief of staff was saying there was a working woman who, who works in the house and he once saw that she was standing at the gate and talking on mobile probably asking somebody to pick her up. So this is the kind of boom that is going on in telecom, in telecommunication. So this is doing very well, on both and let me tell you, that in Baria University in Islamabad was having its…the Prime Minister had gone to degree awarding ceremony and we checked that out of the whole lot, and this was an IT class, 90% of them before passing out had already got a job. That is the job market in information technology and I know what in, Wireaid or Telecom, Telenor, or all the others, how they are pulling at youngsters and offering them pay.

Now, the third category of uneducated or unemployed. Where do they fit in? What should we do for them? There were two areas we selected. One obviously is industry, industry, establishing industry, investment in Pakistan. Whether it is foreign direct investment or local investment. That generates jobs and if the industry which was functioning at 50% and 40% capacity, it goes up to 100% capacity, generates jobs. So industry, now today, “Alhumdollilah” all your, or almost all and I don’t know of any industry which is not working at 100% capacity and expanding. Hundreds of new industry units are coming up. Jobs for labor and labor cost has increased by more than 50%. The labor is demanding more money and the industry is giving them the money because they want them. The second area we thought is building and construction because that is labor intensive. We adopted policies to facilitate building and construction and today there is a building and construction boom going on in Pakistan and therefore, you don’t find skilled labor in Pakistan today.

So on the whole, why I have taken so much time is that there is, for the first time, poverty and unemployment is going down in Pakistan. It is, for the first time in the history of Pakistan, it is showing a downward trend. We have to sustain it. I cannot claim that we’ll eradicate unemployment and poverty. No sir, even there is poverty here and there is unemployment in the United States. But certainly we have to keep going down and we will bring it down considerably, “Inshallah,” as time passes. The negative is inflation. Inflation grows. It was under 4%, it’s almost over 9% I think, it’s something like 9.1% or something. That is bad, but why? Being, talking to an educated audience we must know that economic growth, the first side effect of economic growth is inflation because we must know with economic growth, the purchasing power of an individual grows. And when purchasing power grows and they purchase more, the demand increases and then supply is there. The gap between demand and supply increases and that is what is inflation. I think, from a layman, I am no economy student. I am a simple soldier who, hasn’t, hasn’t studied much, except on-job training. So this is what has led to inflation in Pakistan, but we are taking measures to check it and the best way of checking it, increase the supply. We are trying to increase the supply, narrow the demand and supply gap and that is what will reduce inflation. And secondly, other many measures that we have taken to reduce, taken to reduce costs. Now, so poverty alleviation we are looking officially, doing all that. I am trying to now focus the good governance with a Prime Minister who understands, with a Prime Minister who was my finance minister, with a Prime Minister who understands governance and has been involved in it since the last, now, six years. I am comfortable with whatever is, how the government is functioning.

Now, I thought what should I be focusing on? I thought I will supplement the governance and I will focus on things to make, create effects at the grassroots level. And I have selected for myself, certain subjects and that is number one, we must provide safe drinking water to the entire population of Pakistan and we have strategized it and we will give it, [Applause] we will provide it by 2007. The millennium, the UN Millennium Development Goal is 2015. We will provide it by 2007. Secondly, we must provide electricity to every village of Pakistan. We will do it by 2007. Thirdly, we must give gas to maximum. I wouldn’t be able to promise to every village because that would be too uneconomical, but major towns or as many towns as possible we will do that and I will spearhead this provision of gas to towns.

Thirdly, I thought is the area of education and health. This is our weakling, education and health. Mortality rate, infant mortality, maternal mortality is terrible. Education, illiteracy, literacy level, 53%, disgraceful for a nation which is a nuclear and missile state. Look at our literacy level. So we have to do something at it, about it, in a crash program. So I am spearheading that. So whatever I am spearheading, we have strategized how to go about it and I have created organizations in the center at the national level and in the provincial level and the district levels, which will be operating in tandem with the ministries and that is how I will be. I will induct myself into overseeing and ensuring implementation because I feel the biggest problem in Pakistan, or any developing country is a wide gap between policy formulation and policy implementation. There is a big gap while you formulate policies, but the implementation doesn’t take place. So therefore, I have gotten involved in bridging this gap between policy formulation and policy implementation. “Inshallah” we will do it so we make sure that the economic gains of Pakistan result in poverty alleviation, result in reduction in unemployment, result in creating effects of bettering the lives and prosperity and comfort of people at the grassroots level. That is what we will do and I will focus on that.

And then, I thought we have to project also the soft-face of Pakistan. We are not a country which is firing bullets all over the place and our projection is as it is a terrorist and extremist county. We need to project our soft face. We have a culture. We have our own heritage. We have the most beautiful sites, tourism point of view, and culture and sports. And good thing, our cricket team is coming up; hockey team won its first gold medal. We will carry on rising in all these areas. But on here just to feel that we, whenever I go travel abroad, I am taken to museums, I am taken to monuments where I put wreaths and when anyone comes to Pakistan, Islamabad, other than taking him to Shah Faisal Mosque, he can just see the Presidency, that is all. So we need to do something. We need to, and we have a heritage. So we are now, we have first of all made a museum, the Loc Wilsa in Islamabad is a museum now which is maybe, I have visited many museums in the world now, let me tell you and you come and visit it. I think it compares very well with the best museums of the world. It is already done, it is there. We are creating, we are making a monument, at the Shakarparia Hill, over the zero point. This monument will be ready by middle of next year. It will be something to see. And this monument we have dedicated to the people of Pakistan who sacrificed their today so that we may have a better tomorrow so anyone, whether it is an artist or a soldier or a doctor or an engineer. Whoever has done something for Pakistan, this monument will stand there for him or her. And underground of that monument will be Quaid-E-Azam, will be the movement ’40 to’47, how Pakistan movement was started and how we achieved Pakistan. Because Qaid-E-Azam was only in Karachi and dignitaries don’t go there from Islamabad. We need to show, show ourselves to people in, to the world so this is coming up. Within a year, it should be complete. In Lahore, there is a site where Qaid-E-Azam addressed the first refugees who came from across the border, hundreds of thousands in miserable state. Emotion scenes were enacted there. We are making Baag-e-Pakistan there. I have done the earth breaking. In two years it should be there. It’s the most beautiful, it will be the most beautiful park at that site, at Walton. And I’m sure it will be a place to visit.

In Karachi, we opened a National Academy of Performing Arts where music, vocal, instrumental, theater, is being undertaken. ¬¬¬Zia Mohiddin is in charge and he is doing an excellent job. It is in place. It had an excellent write up recently in the press. We are opening up Pakistani National Council of Arts in Islamabad where Mr. ¬¬–Naeem Tahir he is very well known, he will be the boss and he is going to get involved again in music and in theater. Irrespective of what any extremist says, this is our culture, this is our heritage, and we want to learn, we want to project, we want to feel happy listening to music. [Applause] In one of the, you know in one of the ceremonies I, I said if anyone is against, if anyone thinks that it is not in our religion to feel happy, then he can sit at home and keep bruising, brooding, but we want to move ahead and be happy and we will carry on moving ahead and feeling happy. [Applause]

Then, all this has to be crowned, through a government system, through a democratic system so that, all that we are doing remains sustained through policies, through institutions and individuals should not matter. It is the sustenance of policies that would matter and not sustenance of individuals. So on democracy, let me assure this house, although there are people talk maybe, that I am in uniform although nobody is saying that now, my MS keeps saying why do you keep saying that when nobody is saying, nobody is asking you to remove your uniform anymore, except some extremists there. But however, the issue of democracy is important and I am a strong believer of democracy in Pakistan because nobody is permanent, no individual is permanent. I’m not permanent. It is institutions, it’s the nation which is permanent. So therefore, I believe that democracy has to be established in a manner that it is no more derailed and we examined, strategized this and we have, we have found that there were two problems.

One was that there was no democracy at the grassroots level. We had a colonial heritage of a DC and a SP, two people who reigned the district who were reigning supremos of the district. Now is that what is democracy? Where are the people? So we gave a local government system and we empowered the local government system, financially, administratively, politically and this ¬¬DC and SP are now under the elected man. And I think this experiment has been extremely successful. I think the real development at the grassroots level will take place when the people themselves are answerable to the people and they have the money to do anything that they want in their respected areas. The maximum development, I feel, at the grassroots level has taken place because of this system. However, it has it’s teething problems. Yes, indeed there are some nazims who are very corrupt. That doesn’t matter. That shouldn’t bother us. Direction is correct and we hope these nazims become answerable to the people who elect them. Now, many times people keep asking me why is so and so is terrible, he’s corrupt, is so and so, they keep talking of various people. And my answer to that is very simple, you ask me between ’99 and 2002, I will answer you because I was selecting. Now beyond 2002, you are electing. I’m not selecting, so you are answerable yourselves. Don’t elect the wrong people. Elect the right people.

So this, we have managed in local government and then, in through the local government the other malice was to, to have checks and balances and we have introduced the checks and balances. I won’t go into the details, but democracy really is empowering the people. We have empowered the people. It is empowering. Women are an important factor in Pakistan, in any society. We have empowered the women of Pakistan by giving them reserved seats at every tier. Thirty thousand women are in political authority. Twenty-two percent of your national assembly is women. Thirty-three percent of the local consulate, the lowest level, are women. Other than that they can compete with men and increase their seats. [Applause]

So, we have also empowered the minorities. Minorities are an important part of our culture. We have given them direct, or um, um, joint electorate instead of separate electorate. Previously, they were separate electorate. With joint electorate, now every Muslim who wants to get elected has to go to any, to the minority asking for the vote. Therefore, the minorities have been mainstreamed. They are feeling happy. They are a part of Pakistan society and therefore, we have empowered them and mainstreamed them, also.

So, on the whole, other than that yes, on democracy the important issue is also freedom of speech and expression. We have liberated the media. There was a time when, when I was speaking there was only one mike, the Pakistan television. Today there are 14 mikes because there are all kinds of channels. I don’t know how many and there are more on asking for licenses. So this we have liberated the media. They are free to write. They write against me and they speak against me on the television. I don’t mind. I don’t have any skeletons to hide in the cupboards. I can reply to each one of them. And that is the real essence of democracy. Let anyone speak. Let anyone write. You counter it with your own speaking and your own writing. So, we have introduced sustainable democracy in Pakistan, I think. And I don’t think democracy will be derailed in the future.

We, now I will come to the last subject and that is that this is not all milk and honey in Pakistan. Surely, there are problems and the biggest problem is terrorism and extremism and I think if we don’t address this, if we don’t suppress it, we will flounder. All that I have said will come to not. That is how much importance I would give to this subject. Now we are dealing with this in a very, very, scientific, well thought out, futuristic manner. We have taken terrorism separately and dealing with it with force. Anywhere that it exists we are using force to eliminate it. From the cities and mountains and we have succeeded considerably. They are there, we will succeed ultimately. There is not doubt in my mind. They are on the run, we will keep them on the run. They want to attack me, I will attack them. There is no problem. [Applause]

Now, we come to, we come to extremism. Now this is a totally different aspect. It’s, it’s a, it’s an issue of hearts and minds. You cannot use force against it. It’s a mindset of people. Changing mindset cannot be done with force, cannot be done with rules and regulations. Now, that is the area where you appeal to reasoning and you change hearts and minds. Where are we, what are we doing? And we have addressed it through a six-point strategy. I won’t go into details, but I will enumerate three are short term and the three short term ones are the banned organizations. We are moving against them, arresting people, not allowing them for fund collection. Number two, hate literature, material: books, pamphlets. Terrible if you’d see the names and if you’d see what they are writing. They are abusing each other. Ban them. Get hold of the writer, get a hold of the person who’s printing and put him behind bars. Thirdly, anyone misusing mosques, loudspeakers. “Dua bhi de raha hai to gali bhi de raha hai ke isko gharrat karde khuda-kyoun bhai, achi baatain karni chahiyen” We should pray for good. “Jisko gharrat karna hai, khuda khudi gharrat karega” So don’t worry. “Apnihi duain, badua kyoun deteho” So, we must arrest this tendency of hate, anger. What is this hate and anger going on? So we will not allow that and we are moving against those who do that.

The three, three other areas are long term and long term is number one, madrasa strategy. We need to mainstream the children of madrasa and get them, get them to, to, to be able to, at the moment, the students in madrasas can only become a molvi in a mosque or they can come and teach children, our children khatham-e-Quran and we distribute sweets and that is very good, that is the end of Islam as far as that. This person from madrasa must be mainstreamed-he should be able to become a doctor or an engineer, or we should be able to give him, I should be able to give him scholarships in better schools and colleges. So therefore we are asking them to adopt the syllabus of the boards and take board examinations. They are almost on board, most of the wafaq. There is an organization called wafaq-ul-madaris, five of them. They are on board. They want to register. They want to teach. And I think the strategy will be implemented. Of course, easier said than done. They need capacity. They need teachers and we need the money to give to those teachers and we need to expand maybe the madrasa for space to teach. They are sitting on the floor at the moment, those poorest of the poor children. Maybe we want them to sit on chairs and desks. So that is the madrasa strategy. And then, is the strategy, to we want to, change the syllabus and the curriculum from mere ritualistic to real values of Islam. Haqooq-al-ibad from Haqooqallah.

There was a big uprising in Gilgit; Shia, Sunni fighting, killing each other. Many people got killed. And if I told you why, I don’t know whether you know that. There was a book, religious; there was a photograph in that book where a person is shown with his hand bandeve-aur niche likawahai “namaz parne ka sahi tareeka”. The Shias didn’t like it because they, they don’t fold their hands. So there was fighting. The army included. The police included first. And we were, we thought, remove this photograph. When the photograph was removed, the Sunnis started it, and no that is the sahi tareeka. So we are mad. What are we, what are we doing? Then the army had to come in and many people got killed. So we must curb this. Why are we getting involved in this syllabus issue to the detriment of sectarian harmony, religious harmony. So we need to have real values, essence of Islam taught in our syllabus. We will do that. And the last point is to have an Islamic renaissance, a national discourse on religion which we are going to do. So that is the broad strategy of terrorism and extremism that we have adopted. I’m sure we will succeed because our intentions are noble.

I will skip, I think, I am to address the Jewish Congress also, I know that, haina? Ok, acha. So let me end by, we are also stabilizing the region, by the way. Now, I have spoken of the economy, I have spoken of poverty alleviation, I have spoken of creating effects for the poor, of the people, the masses, I have spoken of how the soft-face of Pakistan, I have spoken of the democracy in Pakistan, so what is left? We need to create a healthy regional environment. We must resolve our dispute with India. We must bring about peace and harmony into Afghanistan. We are contributing our best. We are trying to do that. Having a reproach mind with India. Bring peace and harmony. It will be to the advantage of both India and Pakistan. So having done that, having curbed terrorism, extremism, having done all this, we are on the march forward. Pakistan will keep moving forward. That is what we hope. So therefore, in conclusion, ladies and gentlemen, while there is never a dull moment as far as I am concerned in Pakistan, every day is very interesting. I rise every day with a new challenge, but I think we will face all challenges and we will convert these problems into benefits and take Pakistan forward.

I ask you all to understand realities, be confident of Pakistan, always remember that, talk of the good in Pakistan, what we have achieved and don’t talk of what we have not achieved. There are many things we have to yet to do, but don’t keep ¬creeping and feeling bad and depressed because we haven’t done something. Feel good about what we have done and Inshallah we will do those also. So therefore, feel good, feel confident and feel happy.

DCM Sadiq: Thank you very much. Thank you very much, the president has to go to a very important, equally important, history making event after this so we have to make it very quick so please just state your question, no comments. I want to start from one corner, so that we can move very fast. Yes, this lady there.

President Musharraf: And we alternate between girls and boys. Gender balance should be there.

Azmat Khan, Questioner 1: I’d first like to congratulate you and your government, President Musharraf, in undertaking serious and admirable efforts for gender equality and human rights in Pakistan by signing the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and by articulating in, and by articulating an obligation to achieving the UN Millennium development goals. My question for you then, is given such a declaration to an international coopering which requires a great deal of responsibility to the global community, what role can foreign and international NGO’s who face considerable difficulty in Pakistan play in helping achieve gender equality and human rights in Pakistan while still respecting Pakistani sovereignty?

President Musharraf: Could I be…(laughter). I didn’t get your question in it’s full dimension, but however, maybe that is because of the generation gap between you and me. (laughter) You are talking of gender equality. Okay, yes. I, yes that has to be done and I spoke about it in the morning to the women here and, there are two issues on women that we are addressing, one is violence against women and the other is gender equality. Real emancipation of women is in these two areas. So in gender equality, firstly, is what I said, what is the root? How do you, how do we ensure that? Empower the women first of all. Give destiny in their own hands. We’ve done that. That is the biggest step. Nobody was able to do that. Even the woman Prime Minister of Pakistan didn’t do it for women. I did it. [Applause] So, the other issue now is to, to increase, enhance the capacity of women. Now, we are not talking of women of your caliber who are so enlightened. We are talking of women in Pakistan who are in the villages where there is total illiteracy. They don’t even know anything, how they can bring up their children, how, how, they are totally illiterate. So emancipating them means really improving their capacity, first of all so that they can play a role and improving of capacity will be through education. Now, that is being done. A lot is being done to facilitate education of girls and that is what we are doing. I don’t want to go into the details, but we are doing that. We are going into additional schools for girls and we are encouraging girls through scholarships so that they come into schools. We are doing a lot on that and then of course, we need to address the issue of having develop their capacity. Give them openings in various fields of the society. I am trying my best and the government has formulated policies to ensure induction of women in various fields of activities. So that is what we are doing for gender equality and we are doing a lot also on violence against women.

DCM Sadiq: Now from this side, Salman Ahmed, yes.

President Musharraf: Salman!

Salman Ahmed, Questioner 2: Asalamalaikum. Asalamalaikum, Mr. President. Um, as you know, that, writers, poets, composers, performing artists, they’re the cultural blood of the nation and we have the example of, the great poet, Alama Iqbal, who moves people, who’s poetry moves people a hundred years after it was written. I know your government has been culture-friendly, but there’s two areas I want to, bring your attention towards which is policy matters. One is schools and colleges. Government schools and colleges are the nurseries for young poets and musicians and writers to come up and there is no policy, clear policy in any of the provinces of what they should allow, whether it’s music or poetry or literature. It’s just on a whim, it’s, it’s your, you give that example of a ship in a high waters without a rudder. Similarly, young artists who are wanting to come up don’t have any opportunity in schools in colleges, one thing. The other thing is, how do we protect writers, musicians, artists in today’s world? It’s through intellectual property rights. I mean in the time of Ghalib, there used to be a, the emperor, or the monarchy who used to take care of the artist. But in today’s world, intellectual property right is the way writer can make his living, the poet can make his living, the artist can make his living. So is there a policy that’s being formulated on that, in that regard?

President Musharraf: Yeah I would like to say, let’s get to understanding the issue first of all. First of all, we cannot, I must say that we cannot start sprinting when we cannot even walk. So therefore, we need to be walking and then running gradually and then sprinting. Now when you are talking of in schools and colleges, music and art, now that is not there at all at the moment so, but what we’ve done is to, as I said there’s a National Academy of Performing Arts, there’s a Pakistan National Council of arts being opened, in Lahore there’s already a facility. Now, having these facilities, now to create an environment where people listen to art, people are fond of performing because they can earn a livelihood through that. That also we have done. Today, because of the television channels and encouragement to music that we are, that we are, providing, I know that all the musicians today are extremely happy. To them I am such a great hero because I have given them so much, so much livelihood. You see these tabla and harmonium and sarangi and all. Every television channel is demanding them and they are making good money. So when there is a demand for them, then they will automatically, there will be people who will come forward to learn that art because they will demand in the market. If there is no demand, nobody even wants to, if we think that it is taboo to listen to music, they want leave the country. They were saying that we wanted to leave the country because nobody wants to listen to music. So we have created an environment of art. Now first, if this environment continues, then I am sure the writers and poets that you are talking of will be encouraged because there is an environment which is friendly towards it and an environment which wants to hear and listen and enjoy their, performances. So that is the basics that we have done. A lot needs to be done and people like you should contribute in that field and I know that you are trying your best. So a lot has to be done, yes indeed, but we are trying to do our best.

DCM Sadiq: The lady here. Yes, the center line.

Questioner 3: I have a question about Karachi. I am…

President Musharraf: About what?

Questioner 3: About Karachi. I’m just wondering

President Musharraf: Keep the mic, keep the mic. Okay.

Questioner 3: I’m just wondering what’s being done to improve the terrible law and order situation there. I barely know anyone who has not been subjected to some criminal incident there. My own house has been burglarized twice in the same year, nobody, half of the houses in our neighborhood were burglarized within the same two months. I mean we don’t feel safe in our houses anymore and that’s causing a lot of people to leave the country. How are you going to avoid the brain drain that this is causing? And on a related question, why have you failed ¬¬¬inculcate a sense of pride in their roles as protectors of society into our police force like the armed forces?

President Musharraf: Right yes, law and order is bad, in Pakistan. We need to improve it. In Karachi, it’s a mega city, expanding at such a rate with a population of 14 or 15 million , yes indeed there are law and order problems there just as there are in any other city of the world. Now you are shaking your head as if that is not the case. It is very much the, have you been to Mexico City? If I was last…do you know that people travel in helicopters there and do you know that people travel in bulletproof cars there? But anyway, I am not comparing but first of all, please understand we got the, we get the more light when we think that we are the only country, maybe Karachi is the only city where this is going on. Please don’t think that way. First of all, we understand that Karachi has a problem, surely, but all develop, developing countries especially, even developed countries, even New York, this city of yours is full of crime. Teikhai? Now, how to go about it improving it. There is no doubt and the law enforcement agency is weak and we are trying to address that through improving the induction into the police on merit, their training system and their investigative potential. We are trying to do that, but it will take time to improve the lot of the police. We are improving their pay structures so that they perform better. So a lot is being done to improve the police. When you are talking of motivating them just like in the armed forces, no motivation doesn’t come when there is no pride in them through a better pay structure, their security of their future, security of their children. If you give authority to a person which is very big authority, to an S.H.O. in a place and his pay happens to be just 7,000 or 8,000 and he can’t educate his children, what do you expect from this individual? So there is a problem in the entire structure of things which we are trying to improve, then only the law enforcement agency will perform better. Look at the motorway police and the expressway police now. They are performing in excellent job. They are doing very well. This is a new beginning. So we will try to improve in the cities also, in Karachi and Lahore, yes indeed. I totally agree with you that we need to address it in a strong way. We are doing that, but more has to be done.

DCM Sadiq: Yes, last question from here.

Dr. Raza Bokhari, Questioner 4: The average age of this audience is probably 24 so I have to confess I may have tricked by making an entrance into this audience so thank you indeed. Your speech was very inspiring and there are many positive things happening in Pakistan, but sadly our image continues to struggle and perhaps it is unfair to put you on the spot, a leader of your stature, but would you consider putting together a team of intellectuals, entrepreneurs, young leaders that could, perhaps, worldwide go on a mission of perhaps speaking 2-3 times in a year and lead them, into providing positive image for Pakistan and what all you would consider doing that, what message would you want them to carry with them as they embark upon this effort?

President Musharraf: I think the requirement is more action than words. [Applause], words, words sound hollow when they are not supported by action on ground. So therefore, any amount of intellectuals going around will not manage if our actions on ground do not support that. Now, so therefore, what we are doing in Pakistan is action on ground. You see, world’s concerns are four. There are four world concerns today. Number one on the list is terrorism and extremism. Number two on the list is, nuclear proliferation. Number three on the list is human rights, which includes, women, children, child labor, etcetera, etcetera. And number four on the list is democracy. Pakistan happens to be in the epicenter of each one of these four concerns. So look at the tight rope walking that one is doing. We are handling, we are, I am, I have become an expert tight ropewalker. We have to fight on all four fronts. We are battling on all four fronts, nuclear proliferation, democracy, terrorism, extremism, human rights. We need to show action on ground, on all these four. And we are showing action on ground. The more we show action on ground and more we win, less aspirations abroad. Our stature will improve. Now I, but at the same time, if there are people who are creating obstacles in this, in the way of our stature and will talk very sincerely in, I spoke to the women in the morning. Now there are people here, organizations here, worse still, women of Pakistan who are bad-mouthing their own country wrongly, not even correctly. What do you expect to improve the image, how do you improve image if your own people abroad for political gains or for financial gains or whatever, or because they are under the influence of any other vested interest are badmouthing your own country? How do I tell the world, listen these Pakistanis who are saying this are liars, are saying something wrong? For heavens sake. So therefore, it is your responsibility to suppress these people. To make sure that they don’t talk and that they don’t talk against their own country. That is the requirement. Did I hear someone? (inaudible from audience) Sorry? (inaudible from audience) Yes, that’s right, that’s right. Yeah, okay, I know that. I know that. I know that and therefore, that is what I’m saying, that whatever one does, whatever one does, should always remember one thing, one should consider whether it is in, in the nation’s interest, is attacking an individual important or your love for a nation important? I mean, if I was to, if I was to philosophize this issue. One need to, love of a nation is in everyone’s mind. At the same time, everyone dislikes or hates somebody or the other. But a time comes when you have to take a decision, which of your urges is stronger? Is your urge to hate a person stronger or your urge of love, your loving your nation stronger? Obviously, I presume that the urge to love the nation should be stronger and therefore, when the, when a decision has to be taken whether to attack me and it happens to bring a bad name to the nation, you decide for yourself which one do you want to do. Thank you very much.

*Followed by reception and performance by Salman Ahmed of Junoon.