DAWN: NEW DELHI: The power grab by Taliban insurgents in Pakistan puts the nation’s future at a ‘crossroads,’ according to France’s new special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan.
With the Taliban having advanced to districts just 100 kilometres from the capital, Pakistan ‘has a fire inside its own house’ that it must extinguish, said lawmaker, lawyer and foreign policy expert Pierre Lellouche.
‘There is not a lot of time’ in light of ‘the gravity of the situation,’ he told reporters in New Delhi late Thursday after visiting Islamabad on a fact-finding mission.
Pakistan is at a ‘crossroads,’ he said, saying the country faced an ‘existential question’ about its future existence.
His remarks came as Pakistan’s army launched this week an offensive to reassert control in the northwest of the country.
They were the latest expression of international concern about the situation in Pakistan, led by the United States which last week accused Pakistan’s government of ‘abdicating’ to the Taliban by agreeing to the Sharia law in parts of the country. >>> | Friday, May 1, 2009
