Expert slams Pak for spending billions on defence in face of non-existent war with India

Washington, June 20 : A Pakistani expert on Indo-Pak relations has reportedly said that Islamabad was wasting money by increasing the budgetary outlay every year on defence, as India was never in favour of war (with Pakistan).

According to him, every time a war took place between the two countries, it was initiated by Pakistan and never by India.

Over the past five years, Pakistan spent around six billion rupees on strengthening its defence, a new UK report had said yesterday.

Speaking at annual daylong session of the Pakistani-American Congress, Prof Hafeez Malik of Villanova University, Pennsylvania, who founded the first American institute of Pakistan studies nearly 50 years ago, said, "every war since 1947 has been a war in which the initiative was Pakistan's. India, he said, has no interest in going to war against Pakistan, as it merely wants to 'contain' its neighbour."

He added that it was a pity that the Pakistan government spent billions on buying arms 'when there was no need for them", as Pakistan is not going to go to war with anyone, nor anyone is going to go to war with Pakistan.

Malik further said that the Benazir Bhutto government was responsible for the birth of the Taliban, and the Pakistani intelligence establishment was responsible for nurturing the movement and financing the Taliban government itself, once for three months in running.

He called Karzai the "mayor of Kabul" who does not have the capability of carrying out the threat he recently hurled at Pakistan. A few days ago Karzai had announce that Afghan troops and the US-led foreign troops would attack Pakistan, if the latter didn't stop fanning extremism in Afghanistan.

Speaking on the occasion, Pakistan ambassador in Washington, Husain Haqqani said the time had come when all who were engaged in the war against terrorism needed to do more. "The Government of Pakistan is in the process of putting in place a strategic plan. We expect our friends in Afghanistan and the United States and those in NATO to work with us rather than anyone raising voice against one another," he added.

"Instead of saying that Pakistan is not doing enough, it is time to start saying that everybody there has not done enough and everybody can do more," he said and added that Pakistan will fight terrorism not because the US offered it economic and military aid for doing so, but because it was a battle for Pakistan's very soul.

ANI