Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf is using more resources in suppressing opponents than in fighting extremists, according to the head of a powerful United States senate panel, who said America should stop supplying surveillance and fighter planes to its ally as they have "nothing to do" with fighting terrorism.
Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and presidential hopeful, Democratic Senator Joseph Biden also said the "majority" middle class moderates in Pakistan will become extremists if they are not given a voice soon.
"There is a significant majority, as you know that is democratic. It's a middle class that's moderate. And I think what will happen is you will force them underground. And I think it will be the beginning of the seeds of a real serious problem for Pakistan's stability in the next year to two years," the Delware Democrat said on CNN's Late Edition.
"If you don't get some accommodation for the vast middle of that country, I worry that over time you end up with a situation like you had with the Shah of Iran 30 years ago.
The moderates got so frustrated, they joined with the extremists."
Biden said although President George Bush maintains that Pakistan's military ruler is fighting terrorism, "Quite frankly, Musharraf is using more of his resources to deal with his opponents than he is to go in the northwest province".
The US needs to have a "Pakistani policy, not just a Musharraf policy", he said.
Biden also said the US should "condition" aid to Pakistan "on evidence they're actually fighting terrorism and not fighting their own people".
"... Senator (John) Kerry and I have introduced legislation saying that we should look at eliminating the assistance for the P-3 -- that's an aircraft, a surveillance aircraft -- as well as the fighter jets that are going to be sold there that have nothing to do with us fighting terrorism.
And we should take a real hard look," the senator said.
Biden said as chairman of the Senate panel, he plans to closely watch whether or not Musharraf keeps his promises and actually holds fair elections and if the government is actually engaged in fighting terrorists. "Otherwise, it's not a very good bargain for us," he quipped.
Biden also expressed worries over the presence of nuclear weapons in Pakistan against the backdrop of the current political uncertainty and rise in extremism.
"I'm very concerned about it. Not immediately, but over the next year to two years... Pakistan is bigger than Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and North Korea combined. There's 156 million people. They have 24 to 55 nuclear weapons. They have not only the bomb, the thermonuclear device, they have the missile that can couple with the bomb, and it can fly all the way to the Mediterranean," Biden said.
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