Imran warns against US surge

By Katherine Haddon

LONDON

Oct. 24: Pakistan ex-cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan warned against any Iraq-style surge to tackle violent militancy in Afghanistan, saying the two situations were "completely different".

While stressing his support for US Democratic White House hopefuls Mr Barack Obama and Mr Joe Biden, he said in an interview on Thursday that any move to increase the US military presence would be a bad move. Mr Obama wants to pull US troops from Iraq and send them to Afghanistan, pledging to "take out" top Al Qaeda figures thought to be hiding in the mountainous Pakistan-Afghanistan border region.

Mr Khan also said any international bailout to help Pakistan overcome its current economic crisis would be "like treating cancer with disprin", adding the problem could only be addressed long-term by reforms to halt corruption.

"Most American politicians haven’t a clue," the chair of the Pakistan Movement for Justice said during a visit to London.

"So it’s very easy, they say, you know a surge, but do they understand a surge in Afghanistan and Pakistan is completely different to urban centres in Iraq? It’s a spread-out area, they don’t understand that this (the violence) has morphed into Pashtun nationalism now... they have huge men and guns to draw from."

Mr Khan said Mr Biden had a good grasp of the area’s politics, adding: "It looks as if they might understand the situation better than (Republican candidate John) McCain, who’s basically owning all (US President George W.) Bush’s policies."

He was scathing about the Pakistani government’s attempts to tackle its balance of payments crisis and said any international bailout would have a minimal effect without structural reforms to tackle corruption. —AFP