Pak most vital in war on terror: Burns

WASHINGTON—A senior US administration official has strongly defended American security assistance for Pakistan and vowed to seek congressional support on realizing economic assistance programs for development of the South Asian ally’s border region with Afghanistan.
Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Nicholas Burns observed at a Washington think tank discussion that no country is more important to the US than Pakistan in the campaign against terrorism. “Obviously, a central American interest would be the effectiveness of the Pakistani state and military in limiting the operations of the terrorist organizations, particularly those that are aligned against us—the Taliban and al Qaeda,” he said.
“So we would defend military assistance to Pakistan,” he stressed. “I would say that on a global basis, there’s probably no more important country to the United States than Pakistan in the global struggle to contain and defeat the major terrorist groups.”
The Bush administration, he said, is conscious of the importance of socio-economic development in Pakistan and cited its plans to devote $ 750 million for creation of infrastructure and job opportunities in the tribal areas. “So, we want to go forward with that support of Congress,” he said, The Under Secretary also referred to the administration proposal to put together reconstruction opportunity zones on both sides of Pakistan-Afghanistan border, saying products from these zones would come to the United States either duty free or at very low tariff levels.
The initiative has been discussed between administration and Congress but a legislation on it remains to be formally introduced. “We’ve introduced this in our discussions with the Congress and it hasn’t been decided upon yet. That’s the second economic area where we might be helpful both to Pakistan and Afghanistan.”
US Ambassador Anne W Patterson on Tuesday underlined US respects the mandate of masses in Pakistan stressing that we are ready to work with the new Government. US Ambassador Anne W Patterson expressed these views while talking to Deputy Convenor MQM Farooq Sattar on Tuesday. Host of issues was discussed during the meeting. US Ambassador congratulated Farooq Sattar and his party (MQM) for a remarkable win in February 18 polls.
“Through the electoral process, the Pakistani people have expressed their views, and we respect their choices,” Ambassador Patterson remarked during the meeting. “We are ready to work with whatever coalition is formed. It is up to those elected to form a government.” The Ambassador also reiterated the U.S. desire to continue working with Pakistan for “advancing our common agenda of improving the lives of the Pakistani people through development assistance.”
She was of the view that it is need of the hour for all the Political Parties to accept the mandate of masses sincerely. Later, while talking to Journalists, Farooq Sattar said that all the Political Parties respect the mandate of the masses of Pakistan .—Agencies