BELGIUM: Pakistan's Musharraf rejects ''insinuations'', asks European Parlementarians for help and understanding

Record ID: 731057

  • Title: BELGIUM: Pakistan's Musharraf rejects ''insinuations'', asks European Parlementarians for help and understanding
  • Date: 22nd January 2008
  • Summary: (W4) BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (JANUARY 21, 2008) (REUTERS) EU MPs LISTENING TO MUSHARRAF
  • Embargoed: 6th February 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Belgium
  • Country: Belgium
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA77G09ZIQFMU8QK9GEJ3O801E5
  • Story Text: Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf addressed on Monday (January 21) a foreign affairs committee of the European Parliament and asked the European deputies to help him fight terrorism instead of casting insinuations.
    Musharraf, his popularity in decline in Pakistan after a year of turmoil that has seen stepped up militant attacks and the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto on Dec. 27, said he wanted to correct perceptions during his tour.
    At the European Parliament, Musharraf rejected "insinuations"
    of government involvement in Bhutto's murder.
    ''Help us. Help us please, instead of criticising us and casting insinuations against us and our intelligence agencies,'' Musharraf said.
    ''Please understand us. Please support us. Please encourage us, instead of the insinuations that I said. The success in Afghanistan and indeed in the border regions of Pakistan and in Pakistan, is imperative because it will have direct effect even I believe in the streets of Europe,'' Musharraf continued.
    A surge of attacks by al Qaeda-linked militants based on the Afghan border has raised concern about Pakistan's stability and its efforts to support NATO and U.S. forces struggling to subdue Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan.
    Musharraf said al Qaeda itself was "on the run" in Pakistan but the country was facing a new wave of Taliban militancy.
    NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer discussed the battle against militants with Musharraf in Brussels and both agreed Pakistan, Afghanistan and NATO needed to cooperate as closely as possible, a NATO spokesman said.
    On Tuesday (January 22), Musharraf will see French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris and then attend the World Economic Forum in Davos before talks in London with Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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