Pakistan's Worrisome Pullback

Early victims of the Pakistani army's strategic shift are the civilian governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who is under severe international pressure to improve governance and fight corruption, told me during a long conversation that he was deeply frustrated by Pakistan's attitude. "We have to succeed in convincing the world to end the sanctuaries for terrorism," Karzai said.

The stepped-up Taliban insurgency in southern and eastern Afghanistan, he said, makes it difficult to provide the security needed for improved governance and faster reconstruction.

In Peshawar, the largest city in northwest Pakistan, senior government officials said that the army has not shared details of the peace deals or intelligence information but that they were not in a position to contradict the army or the deals. Peshawar is virtually besieged by Taliban-style militias to its north, south and west, which carry out bombings and kidnappings, despite the agreements.

It was hoped that after elections in February ended nine years of military rule, Pakistan's civilian government would take charge of foreign policy and persuade the army to share national security policy toward India and Afghanistan. But the government has been plagued by problems and is paralyzed on several fronts.

The major powers should engage Pakistan's army to learn whether its new policy represents a strategic shift away from the international fight against terrorism. India must be persuaded to do more to resolve the Kashmir issue, and the world must help strengthen Pakistan's civilian government, especially in the face of its severe economic problems. Getting the army back on track to fight extremism is vital if Pakistan is not to be swamped by Taliban-style rule and become a haven for al-Qaeda.

Ahmed Rashid, a Pakistani journalist, is the author most recently of "Descent Into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia."