Pakistan's Khan links partition to 'war on terror'

LONDON (AFP) - Former Pakistan cricket captain turned politician Imran Khan linked the "war on terror" to the legacy of partition 60 years ago, in an interview published Sunday.

With the anniversary of Pakistan's formation looming this week, Khan said his country had had a "traumatic birth because the British left in such haste" and so became obsessed with security issues.

It also became a "client state" reliant on the United States, Khan told the Sunday Telegraph newspaper, adding that the "war on terror" was one of the results.
Khan also said that he believed Pakistan was no longer a democracy and said he would not want to serve in a coalition government "because you have to compromise too much."

In recent months, he has met former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, now in exile in London, and other opposition politicians about ousting embattled President Pervez Musharraf.
In an interview conducted at the London home of his ex-wife Jemima Khan, he said that the turbulence of partition had meant that the Kashmiri question was not resolved and left relations with India in a poor state.

"Another result was that the state became obsessed with its own survival. Security became the first priority," he told the paper.
"And we became a client state, relying on US aid, rather than being non-aligned like India. It left us with the problem of militancy. The mujahedin on the Pakistan border with Afghanistan was actually trained by the CIA during the Cold War...

"The legacy of all this is the war on terror, which many in Pakistan see as a war on Islam, that is why there is no shortage of recruits there."
Khan added that he believed the "war on terror" had been "misguided" because it had "benefited the people who caused 9/11."

"The US has bombed the (border) area killing many tribesmen -- so anyone who opposes the US becomes a hero," he said.
Speaking of his personal life, he revealed that attacks on his marriage by political opponents had strained the relationship and said he reads his sons -- aged 10 and seven -- bedtime stories from the Koran, "much to my ex-wife's consternation."