Musharraf: Don't 'micromanage' Pakistan

HOUSTON, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- The United States shouldn't try to "micromanage" Pakistan's anti-terrorism efforts against Islamic militants, former President Pervez Musharraf says.

Speaking Saturday in Texas at an event sponsored by the World Affairs Counsel of Houston, Musharraf said Islamabad needs the United States' financial support to defeat the Taliban and other extremists, but warned, "Don't get into micromanaging how to do it because we know how to do it better than you," the Houston Chronicle reported.

Musharraf drew applause from many Pakistani expatriates in the audience when he said Pakistan doesn't need the help of the United States to become an economic power, the newspaper said.

"I am a firm believer that Pakistan is a country that has the resources and human capital to rise on its own with no assistance from anybody in the world," he said.

Contending it was the United States that helped create the fundamentalist Taliban militias in the 1980s to fight against the Soviet Union's occupation of Afghanistan, Musharraf said America encouraged the rise of al-Qaida by abandoning the 35,000 ethnic Pashtun fighters after Moscow pulled out of the country, the Chronicle reported.

Musharraf said Washington must regain the Pashtuns' trust if it is to bring stability to Afghanistan.