Pakistan system is unstable, corrupt and militarist: Salman Rushdie

The power elite of Pakistan is "profoundly duplicitous," says controversial Indian-origin author Salman Rushdie, who finds it "ludicrous" that al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden hid in the heart of that country without anybody's knowledge.

Calling the system in Pakistan "deeply unstable, corrupt and militarist", Rushdie said the Indian perspective would believe that in having Pakistan as an ally, the West "is in bed with the wrong people".

"For those of us who've been watching for a while, this is not rocket science. If you look at this from the Indian side of the frontier, you know that Pakistan has been harbouring terrorists forever," Rushdie told The Times.

The Midnight's Children author also said he had never believed that Laden would be hiding in a mountainous cave and he was hardly surprised that he was found in Abbottabad.

"In this case it was obvious that someone like Laden could not have hidden out for a decade in Pakistan, which is not a wilderness.

"I never believed the cave. I thought, 'This is a rich kid who's grown up in a world of enormous wealth; he ain't living in no cave'. And Abbottabad? You're living next door to West Point? In a town where all your neighbours are retired generals. Your house is eight times the size of the next-biggest house? And nobody wants to know who lives there? Ludicrous," he said.

Terming the power elite of Pakistan as "profoundly duplicitous," he contrasted the set up in that country with India which has a "stable democracy".