Pak fighting for survival, no danger to Govt, Parliament: Zardari

NEW YORK - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has said that while the country is fighting a war for its survival there is no danger to the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) led coalition government and Parliament.

In an interview to Newsweek magazine, Zardari said that the country’s political forces have ‘reinvented’ themselves.

He stressed that Pakistan’s political forces have matured greatly in the recent past, and the 18th Constitutional Amendment is a testimony to that fact.

“I think all the political forces sitting today in Parliament have reinvented ourselves. The 18th Amendment is a reflection of the great maturity, I feel, democratic forces in Pakistan have achieved. But then, of course, we are all still politicians. I’m an optimist to the core, and I don’t think the government and Parliament are in any danger,” Zardari said.

Responding to a question, he ruled out any possibility of a full scare war with India, saying he is a liberal by nature and democrat by principles

“I can never be a hawk. I’m a liberal by nature and democrat by principles. War is never an option, as far as I’m concerned,” Zardari said.

Zardari also made it clear that despite an immense pressure from the international community, particularly the United States, to launch a military offensive in the terror hot bed North Waziristan, where the failed Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad is said to have received terror training from the Taliban, the final call on whether to open any new front in the lawless tribal regions rests with Islamabad only.

“One works with one’s own game plan. We are fighting to save Pakistan. So we’re working on it with a map in our hand. We’d like to know who is financing the Afghan Taliban, and who’s financing the Pakistani Taliban. We haven’t got any closer to knowing that,” he said. (ANI)