Islamabad, July 2: The West has always used Pakistan as a ground for encouraging extremist elements, and was now paying a heavy price for using it for its short-term political objectives, as Pakistan had lately become a centre of international terrorism posing threats to the West, said PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari.

He said that the West always invested in Pakistan’s weapons and military, but not in its people. As a consequence, the international community had to pay a terrible price for its acts.

“We were exploited under colonialism, manipulated as a tool of Cold War intrigue, made into surrogates for a war against the Soviets in Afghanistan, and when that war was won, Pakistan and the country we liberated were abandoned to the forces of extremism and fanaticism,” the Daily Times quoted Zardari as saying in his keynote address at the Socialist International Congress in Athens.

He said, “Pakistan was now the Petrie dish of international terrorism that was a product of failed international politics and not the creation of Pakistan.”

Zardari added that Pakistan could still be converted into a successful model of modernity for 1.3 billion Muslims on earth, and for this, he added, the help of the international community was needed.

“A prosperous Pakistan will smash the remnants of terrorism from our frontiers better than the bullets, missiles and tanks of the super-powers ... it will ensure not only Pakistan’s but the entire world’s stability,” Zardari said and added that the PPP-led government in Pakistan planned to bring economic, political and social transformation of the Tribal Areas. (ANI)