Zardari's government unable to stem Taliban advance across Pakistan

Islamabad, Mar.8 (ANI): Last Tuesday's attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team re- emphasizes the fact that the civilian government of President Asif Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is no more effective than the military rule promoted by President General Pervez Musharraf.

The present administration, according to The Independent, has abjectly failed to stem the brutal advance of militancy across Pakistan.

In an editorial, the paper says Zardari and his Pakistan People's Party seem more preoccupied with using the judiciary to exclude a former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, and his brother, Shahbaz, from office than confronting the militant threat.

While the Pakistani authorities are trumpeting rare successes against the militants, the latter continues to promise revenge, and has been very effective in doing so.

Security agencies have warned that two-thirds of the terror plots that Britain faces originate in Pakistan, or are supported from there.

They are worried at the Pakistan Government's inability or unwillingness to curb the flow of militants into Afghanistan.Islamabad seems more concerned about militants such as Maulana Fazlullah of the Swat valley.

This Taliban commander has seized up to four-fifths of the valley in a brutal campaign.

The spread of militancy across the Indus river to the more populous, settled areas of Pakistan is likely to widen the divergence of interests between Islamabad and the West still further, concludes the paper. (ANI)