UN envoy Akram condemns doomsday prediction for Pakistan

{image-Munir akram_06022008.jpg news.oneindia.in}New York, Feb 6: Pakistan's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Munir Akram has taken exception to New York Times columnist Selig S Harrison's article of February 1, and accused him of fanning an ongoing international conspiracy to destabilize his country.

In the article titled 'Drawn-and Quartered', Harrison suggests 'the breakup of Pakistan would be a costly and destabilising development that can still be avoided, but only if the United States and other foreign donors use their enormous aid leverage to convince Islamabad that it should not only put the 1973 Constitution back into effect, but amend it to go beyond the limited degree of autonomy it envisaged".

In a rejoinder published in the same paper on Tuesday, Akram said the orchestrated campaign against President Musharraf, the denigration of the Pakistani Army, calls for the capture of Pakistan's nuclear assets and the string of suicide bombings are all seen as aimed at this malevolent design.

"Pakistan is a strong state held together solidly by the patriotism of its people and the strength of its civilian and military institutions. With a dynamic (seven percent) annual growth rate, significant foreign investment, the best performing stock exchange in Asia and the progressive reduction of poverty, all Pakistanis, including Pashtuns, Sindhis and Baluchis, are much better placed to achieve their aspirations within Pakistan, as they decided in 1947 through an irrevocable act of self-determination," he said.

The machinations of external powers and their hired guns will not succeed, he added.

ANI