US has immense fascination for military regimes in Pak: Khar

Former foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar has accused the US of supporting military regimes in Pakistan that led to the disruption of democratic process in the country.
"The US government has had a long history of immense fascination with the military of Pakistan," the Dawn quoted Khar as saying in an interview to Al Jazeera.
The US, she said, was complicit in causing a constant disruption in Pakistan's democratic process by propping up one military dictatorship after another.
However, Khar refused to concede that the military "runs the show" in Pakistan, though she admitted that the "military has historically played a much a larger role than the Constitution should permit".

She said that the US government's preference of dealing with military regimes has resulted in the pre-eminence of military influence in Pakistan.
"When Ziaul Haq came in, when Musharraf came in, Pakistan got the best possible military and civil assistance ever possible (from the US)," she said.

Khar also lauded her time as foreign minister, saying that President Asif Ali Zardari-led government had done "humongous work" in that department.
"We didn't need to have a great relationship with London, or with Washington DC, but we needed a great relationship with Kabul and Delhi," she said.
After 35 years, she noted, how no other military or civilian government had showed the will to normalise trade with India.

Khar especially commended the Zardari-led government's ability to shift Pakistan's policy on India.
Previously, Pakistan and India were unwilling to discuss trade until the issue of Kashmir was resolved first - a condition that no longer applies to bilateral trade discussions between the two.
Khar dismissed accusations that Pakistan sponsored "good Taliban" at home and that proxies working for the government were attacking Afghan troops and civilians across the border.
"As far as sponsoring or funding them was concerned," she said "I would like to believe that under our watch that was not the policy direction at all."
Former Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar, who was also part of the government during Khar's term, recently claimed that the government was aware of Osama bin Laden's whereabouts.

But Khar, who was also a government minister at the time, claimed that the Pakistani government was not protecting Osama. However, she admitted that Pakistan "was guilty of being incompetent" when it came to tracking the slain al-Qaeda chief.