Updated on
Summary
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said that the British Government should stop blaming Pakistan for home-grown terror plots targeted at the UK. The FM said Pakistan could offer the West crucial help in ending the war in Afghanistan but stressed that, to achieve a lasting settlement in the region, Britain in particular, had to demonstrate more sensitivity to the political difficulties Pakistan faces in maintaining domestic support for its fight against Islamist extremism. In an interview in London with British newspaper The Independent, Mr Qureshi claimed recent military victories against the Taliban in the Swat Valley were a sign Pakistan was managing to turn the tide against the insurgency. But in a sign of the frustration felt in Islamabad at being lectured to by Britain on the perceived failure to root out extremism, he said, We need to change the language. The minister told Pakistani government was considering an operation in Waziristan.
