Sharif picked to tame Pakistan’s militancy
Seven years after the invasion of Afghanistan to oust the Taliban, Dell Dailey, the US State Department’s counterterrorism chief, reveals there are “gaps in intelligence” about militants in the Pakistani border regions and there is not enough information about what’s going on there.
There’s not enough information on al-Qaeda, on foreign fighters and on the Taliban, yet speculation is rife that nuclear-armed Pakistan will soon be under siege by Islamic militants. And Major General David Rodriguez, who commands US forces in eastern Afghanistan, warned this week that Taliban and al-Qaeda militants have postponed their spring offensive in Afghanistan as they want to focus their efforts on destabilizing the Pakistani government.
Therefore, given the assassination of the “great hope” Benazir Bhutto last month, the million-dollar question is: What political force can calm this visible storm raging in the country?
It is now emerging that Washington and London, the two major stakeholders in the “war on terror”, see former premier Nawaz Sharif as the answer. [complete article]
