WASHINGTON: Pakistan will pursue economic reforms not because the IMF tells us, the US tells us, but because Pakistan needs economic reform, Islamabad's ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani said in an interview.
He told Bloomberg's Washington bureau that Islamabad is committed to ecocomic reforms in the country's own interests. "We are not the only country to adjust fuel prices because of public opinion," Ambassador Haqqani said of last week's decision by the government to roll back energy price increase.
Haqqani strongly defended the government's economic performance in retrieving some key macro-economic indicators and overall outlook over the last few years.
"Pakistan has to have a market economy that runs on its own steam, not just on periodic injections of support from our donors, including the IMF," he said.
"Two years ago when we entered the IMF program, all key indicators were far worse than they are today," Haqqani said. The government, he said, could not meet its targets for last year because of the cost of severe floods that began last July, he said.
The Pakistani government deserves credit from the international community for overseeing an economy that's in better shape now than when President Asif Ali Zardari was elected in October 2008, Haqqani asserted.
On the security side, the ambassador said Pakistan itself will determine the time of operation against militants said to be hiding in North Waziristan tribal area. "Only Pakistan will determine what to do and when to do it," Haqqani said. "Putting US boots on the ground is not going to happen, and it's not needed," he made it clear.
Pakistan now has 147,000 armed forces in tribal areas, Haqqani said, noting that the previous government, led by General Pervez Musharraf, never launched such assaults in tribal areas.
Stressing close cooperative Pakistan-US relationship, the envoy said Vice President Joe Biden's visit to Pakistan Wednesday will be an opportunity to reaffirm the allies strategic partnership, and ensure that "we understand each other's needs and objectives and that they are matched by operational capacities."
The ambassador called Biden a very strong friend of Pakistan who has focused on building a long-term partnership.
President Zardari will be in Washington later this week to attend a memorial service for Richard Holbrooke, the US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, who died last month. He also will meet with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other senior officials, Haqqani said.
In answer to a question about anti-militant drone attacks, he said Pakistan wants "our sovereignty to be respected and we certainly will stand up against civilian casualties. Haqqani affirmed that the US has made a decision in principle to sell Pakistan unmanned, unarmed observation aircraft to provide eyes in the air in its fight against militants.
The ambassador said those who support extremists in Pakistan are a small minority in a nation of 180 million.
Pakistan's military, he noted, has lost more soldiers fighting terrorists in the last two years than any other nation, and said the Obama administration should publicly give credit to its partner for its sacrifices and accomplishments.
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