defiant.
London: Facing a surge of anti-American sentiment and admitting that his popularity in Pakistan was on the wane, a defiant President Pervez Musharraf told The Guardian in an interview that he was "not a poodle" of President George Bush.
Insisting that he was his own man, Musharraf told the paper that his fight against the spread of terrorism in his country was not being done for the benefit of the United States or Britain, but for Pakistan.
"I'm doing it for Pakistan. It's not a question of being a poodle. I'm nobody's poodle. I have enough strength of my own to lead. Pragmatism is required in international relations," the paper quoted Musharraf as saying.
He also rejected suggestions that he was running a military dictatorship.
"It is ironic that I'm sitting in uniform talking of democracy. But to bring democracy into Pakistan I thought I needed it," he said.
Musharraf insisted that there was no question of Pakistan submitting to American scrutiny and said claims that his government acted at Washington's bidding was nonsense. "There is no need of any checks - that is the reality," he said.
As far as the situation in Baluchistan was concerned, he defended his tactic of using military force instead of negotiation to quell the violence and said some collateral damage was inevitable when militants' hideouts were attacked.
Musharraf said his mission was to democratise Pakistan.
"My popularity has gone down but at this moment my country needs me. I've put a strong constitutional democratic system in place. That will throw up a successor. I'm a strong believer in democracy," he said.
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