Turmoil in Pakistan as party quits Cabinet

[allesennogwat]

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.

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.

Cordesman said the stability of a nuclear weapons-armed Pakistan is a higher strategic priority for the U.S. than the future of Afghanistan. If Pakistan came under Islamist extremist rule, it would be far more threatening as an al-Qaida sanctuary than Afghanistan ever could be, he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101229/...1vaWxpbnBhaw--