"Pakistani govt is abdicating to the Taliban": Clinton

More disturbing news as US sec. of state is reported as saying that Pakistani government is abdicating to the Taliban.

From The National

WASHINGTON // Pakistan now poses a “mortal threat” to the world the US secretary of state Hillary Clinton said yesterday.

Surging violence across Pakistan and the spread of Taliban influence through its north-west are reviving concerns about the stability of the nuclear-armed country, an important US ally vital to efforts to stabilise neighbouring Afghanistan.

The US President Barack Obama, who on March 27 unveiled a new strategy that seeks to crush al Qa’eda and Taliban militants in Afghanistan and those operating from across the border in Pakistan, meets the presidents of both countries next month.

The talks illustrate US anxiety that Afghanistan could again become a haven for al Qa’eda militants to launch foreign attacks more than seven years after US-led forces toppled the Afghan Taliban regime that sheltered the September 11 attackers.

Speaking to US legislators Ms Clinton said the Pakistani government had to provide basic services to its people or risk seeing the Taliban, and other extremists, fill the vacuum.

Under pressure from conservatives, Mr Zardari earlier this month signed a regulation imposing Islamic law in Swat, a north-western valley once one of Pakistan’s most popular tourist destinations.

Asked about the matter, Ms Clinton bluntly replied: “I think that the Pakistani government is basically abdicating to the Taliban and to the extremists.”

Speaking before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Ms Clinton said, ominously, that the situation in Pakistan “poses a mortal threat to the security and safety of our country and the world”.