Pak needs 'cultural change' to view that India is not enemy:US

Describing Pakistan as "badly fractured country", US Vice President Joe Biden has said that Islamabad needs a "cultural change" to view that India is not its enemy.  

"This is a badly fractured country...That in one sense has made great strides," Biden said at a fund raiser meeting in Houston in response to a question.  

Known as authority on Pakistan and Afghanistan because of his long stint in Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Biden said that Pakistan needs to move away from its India-enemy mentality.  

Given the animosity the Pakistan establishment has against India, the Vice President felt it would require a cultural change to have them think otherwise. 

 "There's got to be an overall culturally difficult thing to happen, a realization that India is not the enemy... it is FATA, it's (Baitullah) Mehsud, it's the al-Qaeda influence, it's the Taliban," he said.  

Democratic election, Biden said provided "peaceful transition" from military leadership and proved the strength of a middle class and that a new government was not founded on religious tenets.  

"But two things have happened in my sense, a loss of confidence on the part of the Pakistani military as well as the Pakistani political leadership," Biden said according to a pool report provided by the White House.

"There is a need for much better governance," Biden said.  

Highly critical of the peace deal with the Taliban in Swat Valley, Biden said Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari "made a deal for Shariah to become the law of the region" even though the last general election reinforcement the idea of a non-religious government.