THE PAKISTANI government “is basically abdicating to the Taliban and to the extremists”, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton has told Congress in an unusually blunt statement that reflects the unease within the Obama administration about an agreement authorised by President Asif Ali Zardari last week.
The agreement would permit sharia, or Islamic law, in the Swat Valley – 100 miles west of the capital, Islamabad – and was reached after the Pakistani military failed to rout Taliban fighters there.
Mrs Clinton, appearing before the House foreign affairs committee on Wednesday, tempered her remarks by saying that the Pakistani government needs to improve its delivery of justice and services – precisely what leaders there aim to do with billions of dollars in new US assistance.
“Look at why this is happening,” Mrs Clinton said, referring to the Swat Valley agreement. “If you talk to people in Pakistan, especially in the ungoverned territories, which are increasing in number, they don’t believe the state has a judiciary system that works. It’s corrupt. It doesn’t extend its power into the countryside.”
Saying Taliban and extremist advances posed “an existential threat” to Pakistan, Mrs Clinton urged Pakistanis worldwide to speak out against the government’s ceding of ground to militants that intended to overthrow the government of a nuclear-armed country.
Responding to Mrs Clinton’s comments, Husain Haqqani, the Pakistani ambassador to the US, said: “Yes, we have a challenge. But no, we do not have a situation in which the government or the country of Pakistan is about to fall to the Taliban.”
Mrs Clinton’s testimony before the committee marked the former senator’s first appearance on Capitol Hill since her confirmation hearings. She answered questions for four hours, charming even sceptical Republicans with offers to work together, but brushing aside tough questions on abortion rights and interrogation practices with sharply worded answers.
Representative Mike Pence challenged Mrs Clinton on President Obama’s handshake with Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, noting that during the presidential primaries she had criticised Mr Obama for expressing a willingness to consider such meetings.
"President Obama won the election. He beat me in a primary in which he put forth a different approach," she replied. "And he is now our president and we all want our president, no matter of which party, to succeed, especially in such a perilous time." – ( LA Times-Washington Postservice)