Pakistan a 'huge priority': MacKay

With Taliban militants marching on Islamabad and imperilling the safety of its nuclear arsenal, Defence Minister Peter MacKay says Pakistan is the most dangerous place on earth.

MacKay called on Pakistan on Friday to step up its military efforts against the insurgency on in its western region that borders Afghanistan, instead of concentrating on its traditional foe to the east -- co-nuclear power India, which sits across the disputed Kashmir territory.

But the longer term solution, MacKay said, requires the West to do more to disrupt the "incubator" of fanaticism -- hundreds of fundamentalist religious schools -- in Pakistan's tribal belt on the Afghanistan border through a major development effort to win hearts and minds to keep people there from joining the insurgency.

"As far as I'm concerned, this is absolutely a huge priority. There is no more dangerous country in the world today than Pakistan," MacKay told Canwest News Service and Global Television in an interview Friday.

Canada is prepared to do its part to replicate in Pakistan what is now doctrine in Afghanistan: integrating development and diplomacy with military action.

MacKay said he has discussed with key cabinet counterparts, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon and International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda, "how we can spread that approach into Pakistan."

"Clearly we can't do this alone," MacKay said. "We're part of a global community that recognizes the same issues."

MacKay's remarks come as U.S. President Barack Obama takes the first steps to wrestle $7.5 billion from Congress for development aid in Pakistan, which is a key part of the president's new region-wide strategy for winning Afghanistan.

"This is where insurgency and terrorism have been thriving. They're becoming now an incubator, as was Afghanistan, for this extremist Islamic view," MacKay said. As in Afghanistan, schools are needed as "an alternative for young people" to the hundreds of madrassas that indoctrinate young jihadists.

More pressing in the short term is the fact that Taliban militants have moved to within 100 kilometres of the capital, Islamabad, to Buner district, sparking cries by the international community, including Canada, for Pakistan's military to do more to confront the threat.

A Taliban spokesman claimed Friday that militants have withdrawn from Buner.

"Let's not forget what's at stake, in that Pakistan has nuclear weapons. Who is in control of those nuclear weapons is of great concern to everyone, as it should be," MacKay said Friday.

According to the UN nuclear agency, the IAEA, Pakistan has 30 to 40 nuclear warheads. Pakistan says the component parts of its warheads are spread out over several locations.

Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and some of his top military officials defended Pakistan's ability Friday to protect its sovereignty and keep its nuclear weapons from falling into terrorist hands.

"If anyone casts an evil eye on Pakistan, it will be over our dead bodies," Gilani told his parliament.

MacKay acknowledged that Pakistan has its hands full on the Afghanistan border with the Taliban and al-Qaida, as well as with the murky role of its own spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence. link...