Pakistan’s President Vows, Again, to Fight Extremism

“We will fight militants to the finish,” he said to loud applause from his party supporters. “We will not back down. We cannot permit the use of our soil for terrorist activities against any other country, we will not.”

But in a sign of Mr. Zardari’s increasing isolation, he was speaking to a half-empty chamber: a walkout of the main opposition parties at the start of the address included the largest, the Pakistan Muslim League of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Ostensibly a statement against government corruption, the protest was an example of the constant political wrangling that daily threatens to overwhelm the government.

A burst of heckling as he began speaking died down when Mr. Zardari loudly condemned the burning of a Koran in Florida on Sunday, an event that drew few attendees and slipped by with little media attention. The event was held at a tiny church whose pastor, Terry Jones, created an international stir last year with the threat to burn a Koran, before backing off amid criticism both of him and the American media for giving him outsize attention.

Three years into a five-year term, Mr. Zardari is showing an ability to survive politically despite repeated predictions of his government’s collapse. In his address, he listed broad achievements on his watch. In particular, he noted constitutional reforms that strengthen democracy, including his own actions to relinquish presidential powers acquired by military rulers, and changes to devolve power to the provinces.

He promised further political change in the restive tribal areas, which has met with resistance from the Pakistani military, as well as economic and energy reforms and increased regional trade.

Despite an increasingly difficult and unpopular relationship with the United States, he reiterated his party’s conviction to fight terrorism and develop good long-term relations with neighboring Afghanistan, and the United States and other regional actors. “We seek trade, not aid,” he said.

“With the United States we remain committed to building a long-term partnership based on mutual respect, mutual interest, and sovereign equality,” he said. Relations with Afghanistan had undergone a “sea change” under his government, he said.

He condemned the killing of the former Punjab Province governor, Salman Taseer, who was assassinated by one of his own security guards in January, and that of the minister for minorities, Shahbaz Bhatti, in the first week of March. Both had campaigned for changes to Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, which often are used to persecute Christians and other religious minorities.

Mr. Zardari’s government has dropped its plans to revise the blasphemy laws and he did not mention the issue in his speech, but promised to protect the rights of minorities.

“We will ensure a modern, moderate Pakistan,” Mr. Zardari said. “We will avenge the martyrdom of heroes of democracy by defeating the mind-set that preaches violence and hatred,” he went on.

“We must be true to our principles, and we must be strong,” he said. “Being strong means, denouncing what is wrong. And violence, hatred, extremism and intolerance are wrong.” In the climate of fear that followed the killings of the two officials, Mr. Zardari and members of his government were criticized for their weak response in condemning the murders and pursuing their assassins.

He also vowed to continue to pursue those behind the death of his wife, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, during an attack by extremists in 2007 in Rawalpindi, the garrison city adjacent to Islamabad. After a United Nations commission completed its inquiry into her death, the government had brought forward a new prosecution document to court, he said.

Her family and her party, the Pakistan Peoples Party, did not want revenge, he said. “We aim at defeating the mind-set that was behind her assassination. As she herself so famously said: ‘Democracy is the best revenge.’ ”

“The fight against militancy may be long and bitter, but we have no other option except to win. And win we will, soon, God willing,” he said.