Worst Job in the World

Pakistan's Prime Minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, leads a fractious Parliament that is facing at once a major economic crisis, a spreading border insurgency and still-tense relations with his country's powerful military. He spoke to NEWSWEEK's Lally Weymouth at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Excerpts:

Weymouth: I had dinner with Benazir Bhutto before her death, talking about the penetration of Al Qaeda and other terror groups into Pakistan, and she said, "I knew it was bad, but I didn't know how bad it was until I came back here." Do you share her fear?
Gilani: She had a concern about the country because she knew the government was not in safe hands and democracy is the real answer. On the 18th of February last year, when the election took place, it was the pro-democratic forces that won the election in Pakistan.

What about Al Qaeda's penetration of the tribal areas, North-West Frontier province, Swat and Baluchistan?
In earlier days … there was no real action taking place in those areas. This time the government is taking serious action against the militants who are coming from Uzbekistan [and] Chechnya, and Arabs and the Taliban. We are fighting them and they are feeling the heat.

Even so, aren't you concerned about the lack of government control in certain areas of Pakistan, like Swat?
Certainly not.

I know U.S. officials are concerned.
We have the will and we have the ability. We don't have the capacity. The capacity I am talking about is the law-enforcement agencies like the Frontier Corps or the police because the Army is not a permanent solution for anything. Therefore we have appealed to the world and to the Americans that they should strengthen the capacity of our law-enforcement agencies.

How do you feel about President Obama's election?
We are positive about his election. We think that he will go for a change because military action is not the only solution to the problem. Some new strategy should be evolved. I agree with Obama and I support him nominating an envoy, Richard Holbrooke, for this region because he realizes it is a regional problem.

How do you feel about the U.S. raids being conducted from Afghanistan into Pakistan?
My plea would be—as we have a multi-dimensional cooperation with the United States and a strategic partnership—that we should have more intelligence sharing between the two countries. So when actionable and credible information is shared with us, we would be allowed to hit [targets] ourselves instead of the Americans.