Pakistan’s former military ruler Pervez Musharraf has said that the US could have avoided the nine-year long war in Afghanistan, had it recognised the then Taliban regime there.
“I always proposed that we need to have a different strategy. We need to recognise the Taliban and try to change them from within,” he said adding that had there been US and other foreign missions in Afghanistan “maybe we could have resolved this Osama bin Laden tangle. (It) may not have erupted even.”
Pakistan’s former military ruler said the acceptance of Taliban by the global community could not only have prevented the war in Afghanistan but would also helped in saving the Bamiyan Buddhas.
“Had we had 18 missions there, including the US mission, with the Taliban I think we could have saved the Buddha statues,” he said at the Asia Society’s Texas Center.
Defying global pressure, the two colossal 1,500-year-old statues of Buddha, carved into the sandstone cliffs of Bamiyan, were demolished by the Taliban on March 2001 as part of a campaign to rid the land of all un-Islamic graven images.
Musharraf pointed that the US-backed talk-process with Taliban is “from a position of weakness” and an attempt to end the war in Afghanistan, but said that he supports the dialogue with “moderate Taliban”.
On his plans to return to Pakistan politics by fighting elections in 2013 and launch of a party called All Pakistan Muslim League in London, Musharraf said “I personally feel the environment in Pakistan at this moment is absolutely right for initiating a new party.”
{{/usCountry}}On his plans to return to Pakistan politics by fighting elections in 2013 and launch of a party called All Pakistan Muslim League in London, Musharraf said “I personally feel the environment in Pakistan at this moment is absolutely right for initiating a new party.”
{{/usCountry}}He is counting on Houston’s 75,000 Pakistan origin people to help him lead to the victory by giving financial support and political support.
Mush fit to be murdered: Fatwa
Adding to woes of Pervez Musharraf, a group of religious scholars has issued a ‘fatwa’ declaring him “fit to be murdered” while a petition filed in the Pakistan supreme court has sought registration of a high treason case against him. The fatwa or edict was issued by a group of politicians and religious scholars during a meeting in Quetta.