by Najam Sethi
THE US secretary of state Hillary Clinton is visiting Pakistan at a critical time.
The Obama administration is once again reviewing its Af- Pak policy to determine whether to send more US troops to Afghanistan or risk relying upon Pakistan to “do more” in Waziristan against the Al- Qaeda- Taliban network that is threatening to overrun the country.
But Pakistan has its hands full as it is. It is reeling from a murderous bombing offensive by the Taliban that has claimed over 250 lives in the last two weeks.
Indeed, Mrs Clinton’s arrival in Islamabad was greeted by a suicide bombing in a crowded street in Peshawar, barely 100 km away, that left over 100 dead.
But rising political tensions within Pakistan’s body politics aren’t making America’s job any easier. The government of President Asif Zardari is largely viewed in Pakistan as incompetent and untrustworthy.
Worse, in the midst of unprecedented anti- Americanism in the country, it is portrayed by a religio- nationalist media as being “servile” in its dealings with the US. The latest example of this is the near- universal rejection of the Kerry- Lugar Bill which aims to cough up US$ 1.5 billion a year over the next five years for bankrupt Pakistan from America’s ailing exchequer because some of the conditions attached to it, which the government has shrugged away as being inconsequential, are seen as “ humiliatingly intrusive”. The Pakistan army, which doesn’t see eye to eye with America about its Af- Pak strategy and wanted to send an indirect signal of its unhappiness, exploited the situation recently by egging on the media and opposition to “reject” the aid and put the Zardari government on the defensive.
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