US held military regimes in Pak in great fascination: Khar

Islamabad, December 19

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The US supported Pakistan’s military regimes, a former foreign minister of Pakistan has said in an interview.

"The US government has had a long history of immense fascination with the military of Pakistan," the Dawn quoted Hina Rabbani Khar as saying in an interview to Al Jazeera.

She said the US propped up military dictatorships, even preferring them over civilian governments

"When Ziaul Haq came in, when Musharraf came in, Pakistan got the best possible military and civil assistance ever possible (from the US)," she said

However, Khar denied that the military “ran the show” in Pakistan, although she did admit that the "military has historically played a much a larger role than the Constitution should permit".

Khar claimed that the foreign ministry under President Asif Ali Zardari-led government had done "humongous work" in that department, especially the shift in Pakistan's policy on India.

"We didn't need to have a great relationship with London, or with Washington DC, but we needed a great relationship with Kabul and Delhi," she said, adding no other military or civilian government had showed the will to normalise trade with India.

Khar was foreign minister from 2011 to 2013.

Previously, Pakistan and India were unwilling to discuss trade until the issue of Kashmir was resolved first — a condition that no longer applies to bilateral trade discussions between the two.

Khar dismissed accusations that Pakistan sponsored "good Taliban" at home and that proxies working for the government were attacking Afghan troops and civilians across the border.

"As far as sponsoring or funding them was concerned, I would like to believe that under our watch that was not the policy direction at all," she said.

Former Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar, who was also part of the government during Khar's term, recently claimed that the government was aware of Osama bin Laden's whereabouts.

But Khar, who was also a government minister at the time, claimed that the Pakistani government was not protecting Osama. However, she admitted that Pakistan "was guilty of being incompetent" when it came to tracking the slain al-Qaeda chief. PTI