Key question:

Just as Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari spoke hopefully about convincing the US President-elect Barack Obama into “re-evaluating American military strikes on suspected Al Qaeda and Taliban targets on Pakistan’s side of the Afghan border”, a commander of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) hijacked 15 trucks in Khyber Agency en route to Afghanistan to deliver goods to US-led coalition forces.

The parliament in Islamabad has passed a resolution that is propagated by pro-Taliban media journalists and anchorpersons to favour a withdrawal of the Pakistan army from the Tribal Areas as a prelude to negotiating a political deal with the “militants”. In actual fact, the resolution says nothing of the sort. It sets explicit constitutional pre-conditions, including the laying down of their arms, for any talks with anti-state elements, let alone any unilateral military withdrawal from FATA. On one thing, however, there is a consensus — the US must be stopped from attacking Pakistani territory across the Durand Line.

No nation-state can allow its territorial sovereignty to be so violated. But one can’t also see how the Americans can be “persuaded” to heed President Zardari, given their knowledge of how Pakistan is unable to control its own territory and prevent the Taliban from attacking Afghanistan. - Daily Times (Pakistan)