Putting up a brave front in the face of United States President George W Bush's refusal to extend the historic India-US civilian nuclear agreement to Pakistan, President Pervez Musharraf has said he is aware of 'interests and nuances' in interstate relations but insisted that Islamabad's needs in nuclear field were different from that of New Delhi.
In an interview aired on CNN, Musharraf said he was 'very satisifed' with the outcome of Bush's visit. 'We developed very close understanding and there was a lot of substance in the interaction,' he said.
Asked about the difference in the Bush administration's treatment of India and Pakistan on civilian nuclear energy, Musharraf said he agreed with Bush in his assessment of dealing with two countries with different interests.
'I would tend to agree with him. When we are dealing with two countries, the inter-State relations have different compunctions; they have different nuances. The relationship with India, who doesn't know which side it is directed, and the relationship with Pakistan has a totally different nuance,' the Pakistan president said. 'So, therefore, one really, in inter-State relations, countries have to look at each other's interests, the mutuality of interests.'
'Now, as far as the nuclear side is concerned, Pakistan really does not need much from the United States at all. What we need is nuclear energy. And we discussed that with him. And there was a very positive response from his side. So, our need, vis-a-vis, with the United States is totally different as far as Indian needs with the United States is concerned,' the general remarked.
Musharraf also made the point that everything should not be seen in an 'Indocentric' fashion. 'I'm a very strong believer that this tendency of being Indocentric in all relations doesn't have a rationale. And I wouldn't like to do that at all. Pakistan has its interests and the United States has its interests in Pakistan. We need to see that and we need to move forward on that track. And I think both of us move forward on the track, wherever there is mutual interest. And we don't have to bother what they are doing with India,' he said.
Musharraf maintained that the A Q Khan issue did not come up in the meeting with President Bush. 'No, it didn't come up during this talk. We already had spoken about it in the past, that we need to have some kind of an interrogation with him, which is mutually in a methodology which satisfied mutual concerns, and we are going forward on that, so there was no need of discussing it,' Musharraf said.
Launching a tirade against his Afghan counterpart, Musharraf said Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai was 'oblivious' to intelligence operations in his country and was 'unaware about a deliberate attempt' to malign his neighbour.
Musharraf's comments comes after criticism that Pakistan was not doing enough on intelligence provided by Afghanistan on the possible hideouts of Taliban leader Mullah Omar.
'I am totally disappointed with their intelligence and I feel there is a very, very deliberate attempt to malign Pakistan by some agents. Karzai is totally oblivious of what is happening in his own country,' Musharraf told CNN's Wolf Blitzer.
The president expressed 'surprise and shock' at the disclosure of intelligence findings to the media, but denied any credibility to it saying the list was 'outdated.'
'We've already gone through it, this list. Two-thirds of it is months old, and it is outdated, and there is nothing. What there, the telephone numbers that they are talking of, two-thirds of them are dead numbers and even the CIA knows about it because we are sharing all this information with them,' Musharraf said.
'The location that they are talking of Mullah Omar is nonsense. There's nobody there. We've gone there exactly and seen that there are families living there and there's no sign of Mullah Omar. This also seems to be very, very old information.'
'I will say he (Karzai) should pull up his intelligence, he should pull up his ministry of defense, he should coordinate with our intelligence and intelligence coordination means pass the numbers, pass the intelligence immediately, on occurrence. Don't wait for months for a presidential visit to hand over these things,' Musharraf said.
The Pakistani leader said he had informed Karzai about the 'conspiracy' against Pakistan in Afghanistan's ministry of defense and his intelligence setup. 'He better set that in order before accusing Pakistan on any issue,' the general said.
Asked if there was some kind of tension between Pakistan and Afghanistan, Musharraf acknowledged that this was the case. 'unfortunately, it is developing in the last one or two months. There was no tension. It was going on excellent, in an excellent way. Now, I know that there is a problem on the border area,' Musharraf said.
'There is a problem on the Pakistan side; there is a problem in Afghanistan also. Now, if anybody in the Afghan government throws the entire blame on Pakistan as if nothing is happening in Afghanistan, everyone is here, Mullah Omar is living in Quetta. Who is saying that he's living there? This is absolutely nonsense. So this kind of nonsensical accusations are not acceptable,' Musharraf said.
