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Thursday, May 05, 2011
Whole world shares Osama blame: Gilani* PM says fighting terrorism is whole world’s responsibility
* Pakistan plagued by ‘exaggerated’ and ‘misleading’ perceptions, needs ‘support of entire world’
PARIS: Pakistan’s prime minister defended his country’s ‘failure’ to spot that Osama bin Laden had been hiding out in a luxury compound near Islamabad, saying that fighting terrorism was the whole world’s responsibility.
“There is an intelligence failure of the whole world, not just Pakistan alone,” Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani told reporters in Paris on Wednesday where he met French President Nicholas Sarkozy. “Certainly we have intelligence sharing with the rest of the world, including the United States, so if somebody points out that there are ... lapses from the Pakistan side, that means there are lapses from the whole world,” he said. Gilani said Pakistan had paid a heavy price for its involvement in the US-led ‘war on terrorism’, with more than 30,000 Pakistanis killed since the fighting in Afghanistan began.
“Security and the fight against extremism or terrorism is not the job of only one nation,” Gilani said.
Pakistan needed ‘the support of the entire world’ to eradicate terrorism, he added.
“We are fighting and paying a heavy price to combat terrorism and extremism... fighting not only for Pakistan but for the peace, prosperity and progress of the whole world.” Asked whether there would be an official investigation, Gilani said ‘that must have already been ordered’.
He said he had been in power only since 2008 and questioned what had happened in the past seven years.
“In spite of having best intelligence agencies (they) could not find him,” Gilani said. Gilani, speaking to representatives of French employers’ group Medef, sought to convince business leaders considering investment in Pakistan that the country was plagued by what he called ‘exaggerated’ and ‘misleading’ perceptions. “Today, through your forum, I want to convince the world that instead of giving negative messages for Pakistan, rather we should send positive messages to Pakistan,” Gilani said.
“We should have positive messages because no one, no single nation, alone can fight terrorism. Pakistan is a part of the solution and not a part of the problem,” he said.
“Instead of a blame game, we should respect what Pakistan has done in the war against terror,” Gilani said. To a question whether the United States had sought Pakistan’s permission prior to the raid, he said, “When we meet them we would ask them.” agencies
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk