I have to say I like Obama a lot. His record is the best. He's always been vocal about his opposition to the war in Iraq. Frankly, he seems very good in a lot of ways.

Pakistan is, I always feel, hopeful. You know, our system of government is not, and the system of foreign policy whereby we do whatever is asked of us as long as the price is right only proves to fundamentalist outfits and to militant groups that when we talk of things like democracy, when we talk of things like foreign policy, what we're really talking about is being pro-American.

I think we can build democracy in Pakistan. But it will take time. And it will be a Pakistani democracy. Not one that's imposed by...someone else.

I have to say I like Obama a lot. His record is the best. He's always been vocal about his opposition to the war in Iraq. Frankly, he seems very good in a lot of ways.

In fact, if you look at people within our government, they seem to be quite enthusiastically fighting the war against their own people at the behest of the United States. So it doesn't seem to me that the strong way to oppose this is by joining politics at all, but just to keep speaking and to keep talking about it.

However, I think we have to go back to the American bogeyman - we have to understand that this is a country which currently allows American drones to fly over our skies and bomb our people on an almost weekly basis, this is a country that survives on American aid in the billions. Today's headline in the newspapers is about America stepping up arms supplies to Pakistan.

In a country like Pakistan where is politics is often an art form of the elite, and it's often very dynastic, it's hard to explain to people why I don't think it's a birthright.