'Major political drama' unfolding in Pak: US

With Pakistan's Supreme Court scrapping a graft amnesty to president Asif Ali Zardari, the US envoy for the region today said a "major political drama" is unfolding there, even as he spoke of America's "dilemma" about fighting al Qaeda and Taliban forces on Pakistani soil.

"Even as we talk, there's a major political drama unfolding in Islamabad right now," Richard Holbrooke, the US special representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan, told Charlie Rose of the PBS news channel.

"Well, it's a very complicated story, but in essence (then) president Pervez Musharraf and Pakistan Peoples Party chairperson Benazir Bhutto cut a deal to suspend corruption cases – they passed a decree called the National Reconciliation Ordnance (NRO) which gave amnesty to all members of Benazir Bhutto's party, including her husband (Zardari) and herself," he said.

He noted that Pakistan's Supreme Court, in the last few days, has said that all the people — over 8,000 — who were given amnesty in graft cases, were now open for re-prosecution.

"So that involved several ministers, including ministers of interior (Rehman Malik), defence (Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar) who have now been told they can't leave the country," Holbrooke said.

"So a tremendous political drama is now unfolding, that involves the (ruling) PPP, the opposition party (PML-N) of Nawaz Sharif... the Pakistani military under General (Ashfaq Parvez) Kayani, and the Supreme Court of Pakistan, plus public opinion. And how it's going to come out, remains to be seen," he said.

"But so far it (political drama in Pakistan) has had no effect on our national security interests; but it's something that we're watching very carefully," Holbrooke said.

Arguing that in 11 months of the Obama administration, US regained popularity in Pakistan, he said, "We are much more popular... and secretary (of State Hillary) Clinton's trip had an immediate effect on public opinion."

"Are we where we should be? No. Are we getting better? Yes. Are we strengthening our public diplomacy, our public affairs programs? We have to, and we're doing that," he said. "And there will be a continuous stream of visitors to the region next year."

Tom Vilsack, secretary of Agriculture, will be going throughout in January on a very important trip to the region. "There's a couple of other trips in the works," he said.

"And we are going to continue to work closely with Pakistan. It isn't easy, but I need to stress... that it is essential to our national security," Holbrooke said.

He also said the US is facing a dilemma with respect to Pakistan, as unlike Afghanistan, it cannot send its troops there to fight al Qaeda and Taliban, and needs to find other means.

"The dilemma is that the leadership of both, al Qaeda and Taliban, is in a neighbouring country (of Afghanistan), where our troops cannot fight. And therefore, we have to find other means of working for the Pakistanis, and other means to deal with the groups...," he said.

Holbrooke also made it clear that he is not an envoy for Indo-Pak ties, though he said he gives great importance to India in the region, and constantly consults it on the Obama administration's Af-Pak policies.