Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Pakistan's UN Ambassador speaks on US-Pakistani relations

An interesting interview of Abdullah Hussain Haroon, Pakistan's UN Ambassador, on The Brian Lehrer Show (click on the "Listen" link).  The interview came ahead of the 1st Annual New York Sufi Music Festival hosted by the Ambassador and the Pakistani Peace Builders Initiative.

Ambassador Haroon said some controversial things - like that Pakistan was a democracy before the United States because all Pakistani adults could vote in 1947 whereas blacks and women in America were not given true access to the ballot until the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Whatever you think of Ambassador Haroon, he is quite confident of his opinions! He also made the case that Pakistan's sacrifice in fighting terrorism is not appreciated given the amount of Pakistani soldiers that have died helping US operations in Afghanistan.  But, overall, he was quite positive about Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her approach to US-Pakistani relations.

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