Turmoil in Pakistan as party quits Cabinet

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Fox News:

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan's U.S.-allied ruling party suffered a fresh blow to its fragile hold on power Tuesday when a coalition partner said it will quit the cabinet, deepening the nation's political turmoil and potentially distracting Islamabad from helping American forces target militants.

New elections could lead to the emergence of a government not as friendly to U.S. interests and less vocal in opposing the Taliban.

Still, even if the government changes — a prospect that is not at all certain — the country's new leaders will be faced with the same seemingly intractable challenges as their predecessors: a feeble economy, chronic power shortages and rebuilding after this year's horrendous flooding.

And they will have to navigate the delicate partnership between their military, the nation's most powerful institution, and the U.S., which provides billions in aid, to target al-Qaida and Taliban fighters who use Pakistani territory to plan attacks on Western troops in neighboring Afghanistan.

The current government "is not only too weak to meet the U.S.'s short-term priorities even if it wanted to, it's already too weak to meets the long-term priorities that would give Pakistan stability," said Anthony Cordesman, an analyst for the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
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