ISLAMABAD, 26 May — President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said yesterday that he did not see any possibility of war with India, but added that if attacked Pakistan would fight with all its might.
Talking to the BBC’s HARDtalk program, President Musharraf said no sane person would like to go to war and that he hoped war would not break out between India and Pakistan. He accepted that tensions were high but blamed Delhi for massing troops along the border and for alerting the Indian Navy and air force as well as the army.
“So they have the capability of undertaking any adventurous act,” he said. “So long as that capability exists, the situation remains dangerous.”
Asked how far he would take the fighting, President Musharraf said if attacked, Pakistan would fight “with all our might.” “We certainly would defend every inch of Pakistan,” he said. President Musharraf said the tensions began with a militant attack on the Indian Parliament in December which Pakistan condemned “because it was a terrorist attack, certainly.”
He also condemned last week’s attack on the Indian garrison at Kaluchak as a terrorist attack as it led to civilian deaths, but he said Pakistani armed forces had merely reacted to the initial deployments by India. Gen. Musharraf said he hoped good sense would prevail in both India and Pakistan and that Pakistan would cooperate with the US and others trying to avert a war.
But he also said that if war was “thrust” upon Pakistan, his country would defend itself.
Responding to a question about withdrawing Pakistani forces now that Islamabad enjoyed US support, Musharraf said he could not withdraw Pakistani forces unilaterally.
He agreed that US presence in the region could be a restraining influence, but that he believed that Pakistan had to defend itself.
President Musharraf spoke at length about his vision for Pakistan’s political development.
He said Pakistan would have a parliamentary democracy with the elected prime minister the chief executive, but drawing on past experience, he said the power of the premier needed to have some “checks and balances”.
Gen. Musharraf contradicted reports of low turnout at a referendum which recently extended his tenure as president by five years.
He insisted that he was in touch with the people of Pakistan who supported him and his policies. However, he said that a small minority with “vested interests” would like to destabilise the country and disrupt his program.
Musharraf said he was determined to bring “real democracy” to Pakistan, a system that would prevent corruption and be responsive to the people’s expectations.
Asked if he would respect popular demands for his withdrawal from power, he said, “the moment I see that the people of Pakistan are not with me, I would like to quit.”
