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| | GEO Pakistan | | Pakistan itself to tackle internal issues: Clinton | Updated at: 1403 PST, Wednesday, December 02, 2009
 WASHINGTON (Sami Ibrahim): US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Wednesday said Pakistan itself will have to cope with its internal challenges.
Talking to Geo News correspondent Sami Ibrahim in an interview, she said she discussed the matter relating raise in presence of US-allied forces in Afghanistan during her Pakistan tour with the government officials, Pak Army, intelligence and public representatives.
She said she discussed the matter with US National Security Adviser James Jones, CIA Director Leon Panetta, the US commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal and US Central Command Chief General David Petraeus.
“We are persistently consulting with the Pakistani officials over the issue, as all and sundry want a stable and peaceful Afghanistan,’ she said.
Pakistan does not want cross-border problems to penetrate into Pakistan; instead, it wants the neighboring country to be able to defend itself, she maintained adding Al-Qaeda and their allied extremists are dangerous for all.
‘We do realize that the attacks on Pakistanis in the past few weeks were carried out by the extremists; accordingly, we want to help Afghanistan, so that it may take further responsibility,’ she added.
Responding a query regarding the capacity of the present Pakistan leadership to rise to the occasion, the US top official said, ‘It is democracy that strengthens the institutions and to my reckoning, Pakistan is quite resolved for the democracy; however, the country itself will have to tackle its internal issues.’
‘But, we want to help for the democracy in Pakistan,’ she added saying, ‘We want to do this in such fashion that democracy in Pakistan is buttressed and Pakistanis attain a future of their choice, which they told me during my Pakistan tour.’ |  |
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