Pakistan deserves its share of credit

Pakistan, perhaps the world's greatest victim of terrorism, joins the other targets of Al Qaida — the people of the US, Britain, Spain, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Turkey, Yemen, Kenya, Tanzania, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Algeria — in our satisfaction that the source of the greatest evil of the new millennium has been silenced, and his victims given justice. He was not anywhere we had anticipated he would be, but now he is gone.

Although the events of Sunday were not a joint operation, a decade of cooperation and partnership between the US and Pakistan led up to the elimination of Osama Bin Laden as a continuing threat to the civilised world. And we in Pakistan take some satisfaction that our early assistance in identifying an Al Qaida courier ultimately led to this day.

Let us be frank. Pakistan has paid an enormous price for its stand against terrorism. More of its soldiers have died than all of Nato's casualties combined. Two thousand police officers, as many as 30,000 innocent civilians and a generation of social progress for its people have been lost.

And for me, bringing Bin Laden to justice was not just political; it was also personal, as the terrorists murdered Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan's greatest leader and the mother of my children.

Bin Laden tried to assassinate my wife twice.

In 1989, he poured $50 million into a no-confidence vote to topple her first government. Benazir said she was Bin Laden's worst nightmare — a democratically elected, progressive, moderate, pluralistic female leader. She was right, and she paid for it with her life.

Allegations

Some in the American media have suggested that Pakistan lacked vitality in its pursuit of terrorism, or worse, that it was disingenuous and actually protected the terrorists it claimed to be pursuing.

Such baseless speculation may make exciting cable news, but it doesn't reflect fact. Pakistan had as much reason to despise Al Qaida as any nation. The war on terrorism is as much Pakistan's war as it is America's. And though it may have started with Bin Laden, the forces of modernity and moderation remain under serious threat.

My government endorses US President Barack Obama's words and appreciates the credit he gave Pakistan for the successful operation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. We also applaud and endorse the words of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that we must "press forward, bolstering our partnerships, strengthening our networks, investing in a positive vision of peace and progress, and relentlessly pursuing the murderers who target innocent people".

We have not yet won this war, but we now clearly can see the beginning of the end, and the kind of South and Central Asia that lies in our future. Only hours after Bin Laden's death, the Taliban reacted by blaming the government of Pakistan and calling for retribution against its leaders, specifically against me. We will not be intimidated. Pakistan has never been and never will be the hotbed of fanaticism that is often described by the media.

Unwarranted fears

Radical religious parties have never received more than 11 per cent of the vote. Recent polls showed that 85 per cent of our people are strongly opposed to Al Qaida.

In 2009, when the Taliban briefly took over the Swat Valley, it demonstrated to Pakistanis what their future would look like under its rule — repressive politics, fanaticism, bigotry and discrimination against women, closing of schools and burning of books. Those few months did more to unite the people of Pakistan around a moderate vision than anything else possibly could.

A freely elected democratic government, with the support and mandate of the people, working with democracies all over the world, is determined to build a viable, economic prosperous Pakistan that is a model to the entire Islamic world on what can be accomplished in giving hope to our people and opportunity to our children.

Pakistan can become everything that Al Qaida and the Taliban most fear — a vision of a modern Islamic future. Its people, government, military and intelligence agencies are very much united. Some abroad insist that this is not the case, but they are wrong. Pakistanis are united.

Together, we have suffered and sacrificed. We have fought bravely and with passion and commitment. Ultimately we will prevail. For, in the words of my martyred wife Benazir, "truth, justice and the forces of history are on our side."

— Washington Post