Pervez Musharraf: Why terrorists can help Pakistan

Pakistan's national interest is helped by the support of a feared terrorist group blamed for multiple attacks in neighbouring Afghanistan, former president Pervez Musharaf has suggested.

Mr Musharaf told The Daily Telegraph that it was important for his country to spell out to the world why the Haqqani network was being allowed to operate on its soil.

With the relationship between Washington and Islamabad deteriorating sharply, Adml Mike Mullen, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, has accused Pakistan's intelligence services of aiding the Haqqanis during an attack on the American embassy in Kabul.

Mr Musharraf, speaking at his central London apartment, plans to return home from exile next spring and re-enter politics after resigning in 2008 when he was accused of violating the constitution.

He spoke before Adml Mullen's comments but after the issue had been raised by Western intelligence analysts.

Asked if Pakistan needed the support of the powerful insurgent family led by Jalaluddin Haqqani and linked to the Taliban, he said: "If I was in government I would certainly be thinking how best to defend Pakistan's interests.

"Certainly if Afghanistan is being used by India to create an anti-Pakistan Afghanistan, we would like to prevent that."

Mr Musharraf, the former head of Pakistan's armed forces, who was regarded by the George W Bush administration as a key ally in the war on terrorism, said the Haqqani group was the source of a "terrible" lack of trust and confidence.

"The United States must understand Pakistan has its own national interest. The United States must accept the compulsions of Pakistan and give assurances," he said.

He said Pakistan must "talk straight" about "what their national interest is, vis a vis why are they not acting against the Haqqani in North Waziristan [his stronghold], vis a vis was there any complicity in Osama bin Laden being found in Abbottabad."

He dismissed suggestions that the Pakistani military had colluded in hiding bin Laden but said the incident was "most embarrassing and negligence of a shameful order".

The former president said that if he was in power he believed the Americans would have told him about their plans in advance. "I'm a straight talker and I accept straight talk," he said.

But the relationship between the United States and Pakistan was now "very poor" and suffered from "lack of trust and confidence" with "faults on both sides".

"The United States doesn't understand the sensitivities of Pakistan - that the United States is in league with India, that Indians are allowed to do whatever they are doing in Afghanistan."

"When the coalition talk of leaving in 2014, Pakistan has to really think, what will be the environment and fend for itself against all the exterior pressures, all the exterior manoeuvrings and political manoeuvrings against Pakistan."

He said the distrust between the US and Pakistan was increased by drone attacks on the tribal areas, the killing of bin Laden and tensions over Raymond Davis, the CIA agent who shot dead two alleged robbers in Lahore earlier this year.

"Are we some jungle people that you can do anything with? This is the feeling of the people of Pakistan. Are we some animal that they are treating us like this? We are a sovereign country and we have our own human rights."

He said the relationship with Britain was "a little better but not good", adding that the Prime Minister's comments about Pakistan's failure to take on terrorism during a visit to India were "very, very negative".

"Isn't it naive that if you are going to India and you are supposed to be a world power, you are lecturing Pakistan that Pakistan needs to do more on terror. This is terrible, this is not good diplomacy at all. Britain we know to be very good diplomats but this is not good diplomacy."

Mr Musharraf admitted he had had an almost openly hostile relationship with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

"As time passed I realised that President Hamid Karzai is playing more in the hands of Indians who were trying to create an anti-Pakistan Afghanistan," he said. "These were irritants that kept developing over the years and got converted into almost open hostility."

Mr Musharraf called for "ethnically representative, proportionally balanced, national government" that recognised the strength of the Pashtuns.

But he added that Mullah Omar, the leader of the Taliban, was beyond Pakistani control and described him as "absolutely obstinate and semi-literate and not aware of issues of the world, with very backward, sectarian views".