Address by President Pervez Musharraf at the United States Institute of Peace

on June 25, 2003

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Questions and Answers Session (42 min, 8MB)

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It is a great honor for me to address this august gathering in the beautiful city of Washington.

This is my fourth visit to the United States since the tragedy of 9/11. I came in February 2002 shortly after the ouster of the Taliban government and the dispersal of Al-Qaeda. I came again in September of last year to commemorate the first anniversary of 9/11 and I have come now after the transition to a democratic dispensation in Pakistan.

In each of my visits I have sought to consolidate, broaden, and deepen the ties between our two countries and to review and reaffirm our cooperation in the war on terror. The prime minister of Pakistan and I are committed to ensuring a future free of terror that in turn will require progress towards a world free of repression, dispossession, and hopelessness.

Much has been achieved. But more remains to be done. In October 1999 when circumstances at home thrust upon me the responsibility of steering the country out of a series of structural crises I was able to see that the people of Pakistan had been let down by the pretence and mockery of democracy. They had been betrayed by so-called leaders who practiced their politics on the assumption that references to the national interest, democracy, and the people's welfare were mere phrases to deceive the general population and serve their own ends. Even the sacred name of Islam was called into service for the promotion of narrow political agendas. To top it all, the national economy was in a state of bankruptcy and diplomatically the country was isolated. The nation stood at the brink of being declared a "failed state" or a "terrorist state." Despondency, pessimism, hopelessness loomed large.

Political analysts at home and abroad were spreading messages of doom and gloom about the future of Pakistan. Being a professional soldier I took little interest in politics and did not pretend to any special insights. But as a patriotic Pakistani knowing ground realities, I knew the nation had the resources and the potential to progress and prosper.

I knew all that the people of Pakistan needed was reason to hope. I knew honest and sincere leadership and government could deliver this hope. I knew a political platform could be constructed from where a genuine democratic process could begin to take off, develop momentum and sustain itself.

I knew the politics of fraud and deceit led to frustration and violence. I was therefore determined to guide the nation from the dead-end of kleptocracy, masquerading as democracy, to the promise of participatory democracy and good governance.

We are on course. Elections have been held at the center and in the provinces. All the major political parties participated in the elections and in subsequent government formation. Parliamentary government has been restored. The whole spectrum of political opinion in Pakistan is represented in parliament. We have almost 200 women members of parliament at the federal and provincial levels and thousands more at the local level where they constitute a mandatory third of local bodies. In all, 41,000 women sit in political authority at various tiers of Government.

A transfer of power to an elected prime minister has taken place. The federal budget has been adopted by the National Assembly. Yes, there are problems. Given our environment, functional democracy is not easy to implement in Pakistan. There are anti-democratic forces waiting to take advantage of the democratic process to undo the reforms and restructuring my government has introduced during the last three years. Instead, they want to foist their narrow agendas upon the broad masses without their knowledge or consent. This will not happen and I shall have an oversight role in ensuring that it does not happen. Numerous polls have made clear that the people of Pakistan want me to discharge this responsibility.

The prime minister is the chief executive. He is the head of the elected parliamentary government. He makes policy. I am there to help and counsel him and together we are trying to ensure that the democratic process does not again degenerate into chaos and personal aggrandizement as it did on four separate occasions in the 1990s. Together we shall succeed in giving the people of Pakistan what they have longed for and what they richly deserve: a working democracy, an economically thriving civil society, the rule of law, and respect for fundamental freedoms and basic human rights.

Economically, we are on course. During the past three years we have turned the economy around. We have succeeded in posting a remarkable set of macroeconomic statistics. The fundamentals of the economy have radically improved. A platform for rapid growth and poverty reduction is now in place.

Admittedly, this is the beginning of a long journey. We need large investments in physical, social, and human infrastructure. We need substantial flows of foreign investment, management and technology to transform our economy. This includes diversifying the economy, raising agricultural productivity, developing a higher value export profile and an economic backbone of small and medium industries. We have put in place policies and strategies to attract and guarantee the safety of foreign investments. We have invested in modernizing our production units and in upgrading our labor skills. We are determined not to be distracted from our course.

The United States is still reeling from the effects of the awful events of 9/11. A deep schism has opened up on either side of the Atlantic. The world economy remains trapped in weak and jobless growth. Afghanistan is far from settled. Iraq has become a source of grave uncertainty. Muslim opinion remains profoundly alienated by its perception of U.S. policies. The UN system is struggling to hold on to the principles of the charter.

Many around the world and especially in the Muslim world believe that only the symptoms rather than the underlying disease of international terrorism are being aggressively addressed. The root causes of this menace are ignored, leaving injustice, hopelessness, despair, and anger to fester into extremism, violence, and terror.

Dean Nye of the Kennedy School at Harvard has rightly observed that the exercise of "hard power" (i.e. economic and military power) without "soft power" (i.e. moral and cultural power) seldom achieves its purposes. This probably explains why Americans often wonder why they are so misunderstood and misjudged by other people, and why their good intentions have not always led to good results.

The Middle East road map and the recently concluded Aqaba Summit are in this respect a welcome ray of hope. Let us pray they engender a sustainable peace process towards a just and acceptable outcome for all concerned. Given the past record, this hope is bound to be tempered by a certain skepticism and apprehension that this fine work may end up as just another prelude to a zero-sum blame game and continuing tragedy. But given the global stake in winning the war on terror, we must ensure that this will not happen.

India-Pakistan relations are at last showing some prospect of movement. But whether we shall be able to avail of this prospect to launch a sustained peace process is as yet a matter of cautious hope. It will call for a shared commitment to a common vision and for mutual trust to evolve from a determination to resolve longstanding differences, especially the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.

During the Agra Summit of July 2001, I suggested a four-step peace process. This included meaningful dialogue to resolve outstanding issues, acknowledging the centrality of Jammu and Kashmir for India-Pakistan relations, discarding positions unacceptable to one side or the other, and concentrating on a range of possible win-win outcomes that could be acceptable to both parties and the people of Jammu and Kashmir. Such a process would simultaneously provide space for an improvement of the bilateral relationship in other areas. This in turn would provide self-sustaining positive feedback into the peace process.

I believe this is the only way forward. I have long expressed my readiness for dialogue at any level, time, and place. We do not accept pre-conditions. But we have addressed the expressed concerns of India as much as possible. These need to be reciprocated for a peace process to get underway. But if instead of a peace process India insists on the permanence of an unjust status quo in Kashmir when this status quo has been the problem from the very outset then it would be creating obstacles to a peace process rather than facilitating it.

I am extremely encouraged by Prime Minister Vajpayee's recent statements and by the telephone talk between him and Prime Minister Jamali. This has led to a number of measures to reduce tension and restore a measure of normalcy. The role the United States has played has been most commendable. I look forward to an early resumption of the dialogue process at any mutually acceptable level and hope we shall be able to build on the understandings we were able to reach in previous meetings. We are committed to a peace process. We do not believe in violence as a means to peace. But we know militancy is often a response to state repression and a refusal to countenance peaceful political movements and protests on behalf of rights that have been denied. We realize our stake in better relations with India. If India can adopt a similar attitude towards relations with Pakistan then our efforts to resolve our differences on Kashmir and other issues need no longer tread the barren paths of the past.

Despite the many disappointments and differences of the past the prime minister of Pakistan and I are ready to acknowledge Prime Minister Vajpayee as a partner in a historic peace process. This should be aimed at altering negative public attitudes and stereotypes on both sides of the border while moving towards a broad range of cooperation and a just and mutually acceptable resolution of Jammu and Kashmir and other issues. This is the context in which I have made my third visit to the United States in less than a year and a half. I have had a most rewarding and comprehensive discussion with President Bush on a range of issues in the beautiful setting and informal ambience of Camp David. I believe our two countries, which have been friends for so long despite a number of ups and downs in the relationship, are on the point of moving towards a new level of friendship and cooperation.

We have demonstrated the effectiveness of our cooperation in the war on terror. If Al-Qaeda today is only a shadow of its past it is because of our contribution. We remain committed to rooting out the evil of terrorism and extremism in all its forms because they constitute a lethal poison for Pakistan. Nevertheless, I will frankly admit, there are many misgivings in Pakistan about both the justification and the utility of our cooperation with the United States. This is due to the perception that symptoms rather than root causes of terror and extremism are being addressed and that unjust situations in which Muslim peoples are victims of state terror are being ignored.

Accordingly, I sincerely believe that if a Middle East and a South Asia peace process can develop credibility, the very negative Muslim perceptions arising from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq will become much less so. Of course, it will be just as important to ensure economic reconstruction and political stability in Afghanistan and Iraq. Pakistan is ready to cooperate with the United States in the economic reconstruction of these two fraternal countries.

In view of the foregoing, and in view or my talks with President Bush and his team, I am confident that the United States and Pakistan are moving towards a long-term predictable relationship and that skeptics in both countries will have reason to review their reservations. Pakistan is an integral part of the Muslim heartland. It lies at the crossroads of South Asia, Southwest Asia, and Central Asia. It is a major ally or the United States in the war on terror and it has helped break the back of Al-Qaeda. It is in transition to a stable democracy, a modern economy, and a just society. Its political ethos is Islamic moderation and its success will provide exemplary input for the Muslim world.

We are committed to a vision of enlightened moderation for Pakistan. This vision is, as I have mentioned, based on economic transformation through raising growth rates and educational levels; poverty reduction through a range of empowering strategies for women, minorities, and vulnerable segments of society; and foreign direct investment aimed at upgrading the infrastructure and technological and managerial levels of the country.

This vision provides an alternative to the politics of pessimism and despair that have so often defined the responses of various groups in the Muslim world. The sunshine of hope and justice will eradicate the germs of hate and self-destruction. This vision will, of course, require a stable and peaceful environment. That is why it is important for stability under the leadership of President Karzai to be strengthened in Afghanistan and for a genuine peace process between India and Pakistan to get underway as soon as possible.

A broad based multi-year package of assistance to Pakistan will also assist in the realization of this vision. It will broaden and deepen U.S. relations with Pakistan beyond the immediate war on terror. Along with the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) that is designed to pave the way for successful negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement it will be a vital step in the right direction and will be appreciated as such by the people of Pakistan. A confident and self-assured Pakistan will always be a reliable partner for the United States in building a regional order that is based on justice and freedom and that is accordingly free of the twin curses of conflict and terrorism.

Similarly United States support for a viable peace process between India and Pakistan, including serious and sustained negotiations for a principled and mutually acceptable settlement of the longstanding Kashmir dispute, would vitally assist in the realization of the vision of enlightened moderation.

In conclusion, I must say a few words about the situation of the Pakistani community in the United States. This is a community that has enormous potential for not merely contributing to the richness of life in the United States but also for building bridges between our two countries. It is a hard-working, law abiding, tax paying, and largely crime-free community. It is not connected with terrorism.

Yet it has suffered terribly as a result of the trauma of 9/11. It has become the target of domestic U.S. policies, prejudices, suspicions, and xenophobia. Reports of arbitrary arrests, detentions, crude interrogations, mistreatment and deportations abound. For a while this was understandable if certainly not justified, given the unprecedented nature of the tragedy that had befallen the United States. It is no longer so.

Pakistan has cooperated with the United States in enforcing its laws and will continue to do so. But the United States owes it to itself to deal fairly with all its ethnic communities, including Pakistanis, who make up its incomparable social mosaic and give it its unique creativity and dynamism. Pakistanis who have built successful family lives over years of honest work are now being compelled by deliberately created circumstances to leave the United States at devastating personal and family cost.

Students and parents of students hesitate to come to the United States for fear of harassment and humiliation. At the very least they are made to feel unwelcome by immigration officials. Invitees to seminars and business delegations are denied visas or made to wait interminably. Travel advisories against Pakistan similarly disrupt business exchanges.

This is self-defeating. This situation must improve as it has very negative resonance in Pakistan. I speak with the candor of a sincere friend of the United States. I do not need to mince my words. However, I am very encouraged that President Bush, who is an equally candid man and an equally sincere friend of Pakistan, sees this issue in a similar light.

The prospects for U.S.-Pakistan relations and for a better world are bright. But there is no room for complacency and there is a lot of work to do. I urge all Americans to see their stake in the progress of Pakistan towards realizing the vision of its founding father, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, that is, a vision of enlightened moderation.