President Obama has given ‘an F minus to the Pakistani leader’.
Is this a warning bell for another martialaw? Pakistan perhaps will not sustain another military take over which will be very tragic. Hope political leaders should realize this and take a leading position. Zardari has to hand over power to some strong personality and sit back to organize his party rather than taking such kind of whipping from Uncle Sam.
DAWN.COM | World | US sends confusing signals to Pakistan
**But while the Pakistani diplomats were learning this good news from US officials, President Obama shared a candid and frank assessment of the current Pakistani rulers during a news conference on Wednesday night.
‘The civilian government there right now is very fragile and don’t seem to have the capacity to deliver basic services: schools, healthcare, rule of law, a judicial system that works for the majority of the people,’ he said.
‘As a consequence, it is very difficult for them to gain the support and the loyalty of their people,’ he said, summarily dismissing the government’s claim to a popular mandate.
Fox News reported on Thursday that Commander US Central Command Gen David Petraeus has told US officials the next two weeks were ‘critical to determining whether the Pakistani government will survive.’
Fox News also reported that Gen. Petraeus and senior administration officials believed the Pakistan Army was ‘superior’ to the civilian government.
Mr Obama also said that he believed that the Pakistani military, and not the civilian administration, was capable of protecting the country’s nuclear weapons because it ‘recognizes the hazards of those weapons falling into the wrong hands.’
Earlier, US Undersecretary of Defence for Policy Michele Flournoy told US lawmakers that the civilians and political leaders in Pakistan were unable to confront the extremists because they ‘feared violent retaliation’ if they openly opposed them.
Some analysts say that the US administration was sending signals to the Pakistani military that Washington would not oppose any unexpected action against the civilian governments.**