Zardari denies Pakistan flood crisis bungling and warns of Taliban rise

 Guardian

Pakistan's embattled president, Asif Ali Zardari, today warned that Taliban extremists could take advantage of the country's floods crisis, as he defended his own much-criticised handling of the catastrophe.

Zardari said the furore surrounding his overseas trip at the start of the disaster actually showed how much he is "wanted" at home. He said it would take at least three years for the country to rebuild the devastated areas, but "I don't think Pakistan will ever fully recover". However, he said he believed Pakistanis had the resilience to withstand the challenge.

The president and his government have been widely castigated for their management of the disaster, which began last month and has inundated about a fifth of the country's land mass and affected 20 million people. His comments came as Taliban militants killed at least 36 people in three separate attacks in the troubled north-west of Pakistan, and the raging waters hit new areas in the south of the country, with the UN admitting that the floods are outrunning relief efforts.

"Obviously the only political forces waiting in the quarters is the rightist forces," Zardari told the Guardian. "The ideal hope for the radical [is] that hopefully the structure of the state will fail and he will evolve and come out the winner. It's like when they assassinated my wife. It was not just an action to get rid of a prime minister-to-be, it was an action because her personality was a challenge to their ideology."

Zardari's wife, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, was assassinated in 2007 as she campaigned for election, catapulting her widower to the leadership of her Pakistan Peoples party and, two years ago, the presidency. Speaking about the potential threat to the flooded country, Zardari suggested Pakistani Taliban may kidnap children dislocated by the flooding and put them in terrorist training camps.

"I always see such organisations and such people [extremists] taking advantage of situations like this," said Zardari. "They evolved through the human crisis of Afghanistan, they evolved in such a situation. [We must] try to be the buffer between them taking the children, keeping them in the orphanages, and trying to create them into robots."

There is concern that impact of the floods – mass destitution, destruction of much of the country's crops and an outbreak of disease – could push Pakistan towards chaos. Some have suggested the government may be toppled.

The exiled MQM leader, Altaf Hussain, whose party is part of the ruling coalition, said a "French revolution" was required, calling on the military to "weed out corrupt politicians and feudal lords".

Pakistan has been ruled for most of its existence by its military but Zardari insisted that the multiple crises would stop another coup.

"I don't think anybody in their right mind would want to take responsibility; it's only democracy that can carry the yoke," he said.

"Yes, there will be disappointments, so political forces are there for that reason. We will rebuild Pakistan a better place. But in between we'll have to go through the trauma of bad medicine, good medicine, pain; we'll have to live through that."

The president, who was already unpopular in Pakistan because of allegations of corruption, was heavily criticised for going ahead with an official visit to France and Britain earlier this month while the flood calamity was unfolding.

Zardari said that the trip had allowed him to build his relationship with David Cameron and French president Nicolas Sarkozy.

"It [the criticism] gives me a reassurance that I'm so wanted," said Zardari. "I'm so wanted and so desired by people, that [they say] 'why are you out?' I have my own reason for being where I was at what time. I know that this is a long-term situation, and one has to have the capacity to sustain oneself for three years and not exhaust yourself immediately."