Contact: Josh Holly, 202.226.3988
HUNTER STATEMENT ON PAKISTAN STATE OF EMERGENCY
Washington DC – U.S. Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-CA), ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, today asked that Americans not rush to pull their support from Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. Mr. Hunter’s statement follows:
“Recent events in Pakistan are occurring against the backdrop of enormous U.S. interests, especially given that Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan contains a sizeable and lethal community of Taliban and Al Qaeda terrorists. As a supporter of the U.S. in the war against terrorists, President Musharraf faces the challenges resulting from both political opposition and anti-American sentiment.
“President Musharraf clearly seeks to retain control of Pakistan during a state of emergency. He apparently sees this control, which requires the use of military and police forces, as the only remedy for an increasingly lethal Al Qaeda and Taliban presence.
“When the Shah of Iran weakened in the 1970s, the U.S. government did not anticipate the Shah’s successors and did little more than facilitate his exit. Today’s confrontation with Iran over terror and nuclear weapons development is the legacy of short-sighted American leadership in the 1970s. Further, Pakistan possesses something the Shah never had—nuclear weapons.
“We must be careful to ensure our Iranian mistake does not reoccur. As politics in Pakistan continue evolving, we should not rush to abandon Musharraf but work with him to get Pakistan back on the path toward democracy, including the release of political dissidents and the reinstatement of the Supreme Court. We may also consider lending our own security capabilities to ensure the strongest possible protection of Pakistan’s nuclear stockpile.”
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