‘Gen’s dictatorship is fuelling extremism’

Pakistan’s former premier Benazir Bhutto on Saturday said it was a “misperception” that President Pervez Musharraf alone stands in the way of a “nuclear armed, fundamentalist Pakistan”, saying his dictatorship is fuelling extremism. Addressing foreign envoys based in the Pakistani capital in the Parliament House, Bhutto pointed out that the dictatorships of the 1980s in Pakistan “created the Afghan Mujahideen which morphed into Taliban and al-Qaeda”. “The current regime has convinced some nations that Musharaf alone stands in the way of a nuclear armed, fundamentalist Pakistan. This is a misperception,” she said. “The political partners of (the) dictatorship (of the 1980s) hold key positions in the political, administrative and security institutions of this dictatorship. They cannot, and have not contained extremism nor reduced poverty. They have exacerbated the situation to an extent where nuclear-armed Pakistan is threatened with implosion,” she said.