Pakistan making little progress on insurgents: US

The Pakistan government has made little progress in the past year in battling militants, and there is “no clear path towards defeating the insurgency” in the country, according to a White House report that comes as the United States struggles to build its often shaky relationship with Islamabad.While sections of the report speak of military gains in Afghanistan, it says the security situation in parts of Pakistans border regions has deteriorated since fighting resumed in the last part of 2010. It also raises concerns about current political and economic problems on which Pakistans government cannot make progress.The US officials agree that Pakistan is critical to US efforts to defeat al Qaeda, since the terror groups leaders, including Osama bin Laden, are believed to be hiding in havens along mountainous border with Afghanistan. The Pentagon has worked to bolster the Pakistani governments counterinsurgency programme with money and training, and to encourage cross-border cooperation with Afghanistan.Persistent efforts by US leaders, including repeated visits to the country by the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, have improved relationships between the two nations. The report describes recent setbacks, including the recent detention of CIA contractor Raymond Davis, but notes that efforts to overcome them have been somewhat successful. Davis, who was arrested for shooting and killing two Pakistanis in Lahore, was freed eventually after $2.3 million in “blood money”, paid to the families of the deceased.On the political side, the report says the government has been unable to resolve serious economic problems, including fuel price increases, tax reform and budget problems. The report concludes that much more cooperation is needed between Afghanistan and Pakistan to eliminate insurgent havens and more definitively degrade al Qaeda and other terror groups there.