Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-11-14-Speech-3-235"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20071114.31.3-235"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spoken text |
"Mr President, Pakistan is a vital ally for the European Union. Today we find that Pakistan finds itself at a crossroads. But I believe that it wants to engage with us and we have re-established a recent history of engagement with Pakistan, which I understand is progressing reasonably successfully.
But we must not forget the historical context in which we find ourselves today. I know Pakistan reasonably well and by far the biggest issue and problem facing Pakistan internally today is the terrorist threat coming from across the border in Afghanistan. Afghanistan is a common global problem. We in the West turned our backs on Afghanistan some years ago. It is important that we do not turn our back on Pakistan today.
Pakistan has been at the forefront of this battle, sometimes carrying a very heavy burden on behalf of the international community, a heavy burden sometimes carried on weak shoulders, a burden the people of Pakistan have carried, absorbing so much violence and carnage which would otherwise have made its way into other parts of the world. The solution is not to isolate liberals and liberal values and to take away those liberal values from the people of Pakistan.
Today I see that the Commission has again called for the release of prisoners who are currently being held and I support that call. This includes people like the Chief Justice of Pakistan, and indeed Mr Aitzaz Ahsan, who is a leading lawyer in Pakistan. The President of Pakistan must – and these must be our baselines – end the state of emergency immediately. He must reinstate the Constitution. He must reinstate the Supreme Court and he must move towards free and fair elections.
President Musharraf should recognise that we have not turned our back on Pakistan. We remain engaged. It is now time for him to roll back from his current position, to acknowledge our core values, to make them shared values. In a distinct way, despite the desperate situation, he has a unique opportunity even now to deliver power to the people of Pakistan, the true custodians of that power."@en1
|
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples