Bush's policy on Pak big failure:Former US House panel official

New Delhi, Oct 1 (UNI) A former official of the Foreign Affairs Committee of US House of Representatives today described his country's policy on Pakistan as a ''big failure in the last seven years''.

''We had no Pakistan policy as such... only Musharraf policy,'' said Prof Robert Hathaway, who was on the staff of the Foreign Affairs Committee(FAC) for 12 years.

He was delivering a lecture on ''America and the struggle against Extremism: George Bush and His Successor'' at the Oberver Research Foundation, a public policy think tank here.

The former FAC official also condemned Mr Bush's ''excessive use of military and wrong tactics like torture and assault on the Constitution,'' saying ''it had angered and alienated the Muslim world besides curtailing freedom in America.'' ''America is a less free land today,'' he said.

Prof Hathaway, now Director of the Asia Programme, Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars, Washington, said the war against terror could not be won unless the leadership gave attention to governance and nation building besides the military angle.

He said his group, which included influential Republicans and Democrates, was now bringing out a Report, which recommended changes in the present policy on Pakistan, including drastic cut in military assistance to the country.

Prof Hathaway attacked President Bush also on his handling of the Afghanistan situation. The shifting of American focus to Iraq had worsened the situation, he felt.

He hoped whosoever wins the US presidency would focus attention on Afghanistan, a war US cannot afford to lose.

Giving ''C minus'' grade to President Bush in the fight against terror, Prof Hathaway underlined that poor governanace and corruption coupled with incapable leadership of President Hamid Karzai had made things very complicated.

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