People in Pakistan have spoken categorically against terrorism and the country will not go soft on its resolve to fight the menace during the transition period, said Pakistan Ambassador to the United States Hussain Haqqani. The envoy was quashing any concerns in the United States about the country's anti-terror steadfastness during the transition period.
"Let me assure you that millions of people turned out on February 18 to vote against terrorism-- we lost Benazir Bhutto, our icon of democracy -- this campaign was as much for democracy as was for fighting terrorists.
"Therefore, nobody should think that Pakistan is going to go soft on terrorism just because it has a transitional government that is still trying to find its way," the ambassador stated at a reception he hosted at the Pakistan Embassy.
Haqqani was confident that the US-Pakistan relationship would graduate into a strategic partnership, which would be long-term and wide-ranging. "Pakistan and the United States will remain allies and friends not because of the fight against terrorism, but on the basis of shared values of democracy," he said at the reception attended by senior State Department officials and diplomats from several countries, including Afghanistan.
The current Pakistani leadership believed that the greatness of Pakistan could not be accomplished without the greatness of its people, he said, and added the Pakistan Embassy in Washington was open to all.
Touching on Pakistan-Afghanistan relations in the context of challenges facing them, Haqqani said the two neighbours had difficulties in the past, but "this time around it is our resolve that the two countries will work together as brothers to make sure that we are source of comfort and strength to each other rather than a source of trouble and violence for one another." On Pakistan-India relations, he said Pakistan had the political will to overcome difficulties of the past.
Comments
Comments are closed.