The year 2006 was a continuum of what has been happening since the 2002 elections: crucial national security targets were not achieved to cement the economic base of the country; and the high level of national discord over major issues of survival did not come down. Looking ahead, the prospect is bedimmed by the expectation of confrontation and further instability because of the 2007 elections and their ‘foretold’ lack of ‘free-ness and fairness’.
Nothing has gone forward from the leftovers of the 2005 agenda. The trouble in Waziristan has become further complicated after three years of military operations. Now GHQ has agreed to call off the whole strategy of trying to get the ‘foreigners’ out. The main problem remains lack of political support for what President Pervez Musharraf has undertaken. A ‘pact’ was signed with North Waziristan after which the trouble did not abate. It was merely a stratagem to get the army out of a place where it had got bogged down and was taking casualties.
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