Can Pakistan be trusted to wage war on al-Qaida?

As President Barack Obama’s special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard C. Holbrooke, reaches out to leaders in the region in the administration’s push to develop a new policy relating to the two nations at the center of the war on terrorism, the following question looms large: Does the Pakistani government have the desire to destroy al-Qaida and the Taliban militants responsible for the surge of violence?

It’s not a new question, but it is being asked today in light of what Holbrooke has been told during his visit to the country former President George W. Bush called America’s leading ally in the war on global terrorism. President Obama’s special envoy is on a fact-finding mission. After four days in Pakistan, he will visit Afghanistan and India.

Governments in both those countries have accused Pakistani leaders of being soft on the militants. Afghanistan’s president, Hamid Karzai, has said that the steep increase in attacks by the Taliban inside his country is the result of their having a safe haven in the isolated tribal regions in the mountains between the two countries.

Indian officials have charged that the recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai were orchestrated by Islamic militants aligned with a group that has been accused of having ties to members of Pakistan’s intelligence agency. The Indian government is also angry that Pakistan is unwilling to extradite individuals who have been identified by a captured terrorist as being the masterminds of the Mumbai attacks.

Backdrop of distrust

It is against this backdrop of distrust that Holbrooke must find a way of increasing U.S. efforts to defeat al-Qaida and Taliban militants — without alienating the people of Pakistan, many of whom have embraced Islamic extremism preached by Osama bin Laden, the head of al-Qaida.

Indeed, the fact that bin Laden and members of his inner circle have been protected by tribal chieftains in the Northwest region of Pakistan is viewed by officials in Afghanistan and those in India as Pakistan’s unwillingness to take a hard line on the growing militancy.

But the reality is that Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is walking on political eggshells. As U.S. missile strikes against al-Qaida targets in the border region not only claim the lives of terrorists, but also civilians, anti-American sentiment grows among the Pakistani people.

Gilani’s critics have accused him of being a puppet of the United States’, thus forcing him to publicly repudiate the American missile strikes delivered from unmanned drones.

The prime minister has told Holbrooke that such strikes are “counterproductive and are promoting anti-American feelings in the area.” He and other government officials are insisting that any talks dealing with changes in the U.S. effort to defeat al-Qaida and the Taliban must include Pakistan.

Gilani has said his country should be given the lead role, with the U.S. providing military and other support. However, such a move would undoubtedly bring a negative response from Afghanistan and India.

Holbrooke, a highly respected diplomat, must find a way of keeping the United States actively engaged in the war on global terrorism in the region, while at the same time appeasing a key ally, Pakistan.

It won’t be easy — as was illustrated Wednesday when eight Taliban gunmen wearing suicide vests attacked three Afghan government buildings, killing at least 20 people.

In Peshawar, Pakistan, a bomb killed a secular lawmaker and wounded six other people, the Associated Press reported.