TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Pakistan Tries To Halt Crisis

ADVERTISEMENT

The Associated Press

Published: March 14, 2009

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan's government considered cutting a deal with the opposition Friday to ease a political crisis undermining its shaky one-year rule but stepped up a crackdown on demonstrators converging on the capital for a rally.

Pakistani opposition leader Nawaz Sharif said Friday that he will go ahead with a major protest march this weekend, threatening to plunge the nuclear-armed country into even more turmoil.

The opposition warned that distrust between the two camps means any agreement will be hard to broker, a blow to hopes for a quick resolution of a standoff that risks distracting the government as it faces rising al-Qaida and Taliban violence.

The crisis comes as the United States is trying to develop a strategy to fight terrorism in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Pakistan is considered a key U.S. ally in the war on terror, but many analysts and Western diplomats say the political standoff now is distracting the year-old civilian government from the fight against terrorism.

The crisis stems from President Asif Ali Zardari's refusal to accept demands from activist lawyers that he reinstate a group of judges fired by his predecessor, Pervez Musharraf. It deepened in February when the Supreme Court banned Sharif and his brother Shahbaz from elected office.

Reports of new efforts to end the dispute came after talks between Zardari and the country's powerful army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. The military often has played a role in resolving political disputes in Pakistan's 61-year history.

A senior aide to Zardari said he might allow the opposition to regain the leadership in Punjab, the country's most populous and powerful province, to help ease the turmoil. That would involve lifting the governor's rule and letting Sharif's party elect a new chief minister, he said.

It was unclear what effect that would have on resolving the dispute because it does not address the movement's main concern, restoration of independent-minded judges who many believe could be hostile to Zardari.

MISSILES KILL 21

Three missiles thought to have been fired from remotely piloted U.S. aircraft struck a Taliban training camp in the Kurram area of northwestern Pakistan late Thursday and killed 21 militants, according to a local government official and news reports Friday.

Nine other people were injured in the strike, directed at a training camp some 20 miles from Parachinar, the capital of the remote tribal area where 31 people were killed in a similar attack on Feb. 16., said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak with reporters.

The New York Times

Information from McClatchy-Tribune was used in this report.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT