India still tops Pak army's priority list

Islamabad, Apr 6: Even after 61 years of Independence, India still remains the number one in the priority list of Pakistan army. Therefore the toughest challenge for the US administration under Obama is to make Islamabad realise the need to shift focus from India to growing menace of terrorism within its soil.

Since 2001, India has been a major contributor to the development of Afghanistan, which in turn increased Pak's belief that it is being encircled by its neighbour.

US Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Admiral Mike Mullen and Richard C. Holbrooke, President Obama's Special Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, will have to wrestle with this challenge when they arrive in Pakistan for talks early this week, the New York Post reports.

US Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Admiral Mike Mullen and Richard C. Holbrooke, President Obama's Special Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, will have to wrestle with this challenge when they arrive in Pakistan for talks early this week, the New York Post reports.

Even if American initiative to wipe off terrorism, especially Islamic insurgency is accepted by the Pak Government, the people, the political class and the military have brushed off the plan.

"We are running out of time to help Pakistan change its present course toward increasing economic and political instability, and even ultimate failure," said a recent report by a task force of the Atlantic Council that was led by former Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts.

Many Pakistanis believe that it is preferable to accommodate the militants than fight them. Fighting the insurgency is commonly seen in Pakistan as an American cause, not a Pakistani one.

With the 'trust deficit' between Obama's cause and the Pak defence forces, the militants in the tribal regions of country have a lot more working for them than against them.

ANI