This is a crucial admission and an important point in democratic Pakistani governance, if only because of it'll help build a national conversation about homegrown terrorists.

Zardari: “The terrorists of today were the heroes of yesteryear until 9/11 brought things into a new light,” Zardari said in what he called “a candid admission of the realities” in an interactive meeting with former bureaucrats Tuesday night at the presidency.

“Let us be truthful to ourselves and make a candid admission of the realities… Militancy and extremism emerged on the national scene and challenged the state not because the civil bureaucracy was weakened and demoralised, but because they were deliberately created and nurtured as a policy to achieve some short-term tactical objectives,” he said.