Pak won't use N weapons against India

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said on Saturday that he did not favour the use of nuclear weapons at all and Pakistan would certainly not use it first against India. He was speaking at a summit organised by a leading daily.

Striking a positive and reconciliatory note, Zardari said that there was a little bit of an Indian in every Pakistani and a little bit of a Pakistani in every Indian. He advocated the coming together of both the countries and said that India should not see Pakistan as a threat.

He hoped that India and Pakistan would become an economically unified unit like the EU zone, though he refused to comment on the possibility of a single currency for the two countries.

He also said that he has approached the Pakistani Parliament for creating a caucus that could go into all the problems between India and Pakistan, and seek ways for cooperation between the two countries.

The caucus would especially look at resolving the Kashmir dispute and the possibility of developing trade between the two countries.

In a reply to a separate question on the economic situation in Pakistan he said he did not believe in aid but trade for pushing economic recovery in his country and he was looking at the market of a billion people in India and the market in China, among other trade treaties for the recovery of Pakistan’s economy.

On the Indo-Pak trade not being in "full swing", Zardari said he himself was looking for a time-frame for it and mooted opening the movie industry first. Zardari said that borders should be made accessible and favoured issuance of 'e-cards' which could be swiped at the border to enter each other's territory.

"The PPP government had long followed a hands-off policy towards India and it will continue," he told a questioner who sought to know whether India could expect peaceful elections in Jammu and Kashmir in the remaining phases.

Remembering his late wife, Asif Ali Zardari said that he considered his late wife Benazir Bhutto as his leader and drew inspiration from her and her father Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. He said "spiritually, I feel her to be around all the time" and that she guided not only him but others as well.

On participating in anti-piracy operations alongside India, Zardari said Pakistan was a "small country" but would join in the efforts to contribute its "little bit" if asked for.

To question whether he would consider bringing Pakistan’s ex President Pervez Musharraf into government, he said that it was for the parliament to decide whether or not he could be brought into the government. But added that he thought the ex President was having a good time away from office, while he (Zardari) was in jail when Musharraf was in office.

Dismissing suggestions that there was a ‘state within a state’ and the government was not in control Zardari said that the roots of Pakistan’s democracy were deep and drew support from the grassroots.