But American officials are alarmed, who fear it reflects a softening stand toward militants, and might curtail the gains made by US Special Forces after President Pervez Musharraf gave them a free hand to strike at militants using pilotless Predator aircrafts in covert operations.
Many Pakistanis, however, are convinced that the surge in suicide bombings – 17 in the first 10 weeks of 2008 – is a retaliation for three Predator strikes since the beginning of the year. The surge in attacks, combined with the crushing defeat of Musharraf’s party in February parliamentary elections, has brought demands for change in his American-backed policies.
Pakistan People’s Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and Pakistan Muslim League (N) leader Nawaz Sharif tried to strike a more independent stance from Washington and repackage the conflict in a more palatable way for Pakistanis.
They said they were determined to set a different course from that of Musharraf, who has received generous military financial help of 10 billion dollars from Washington for his support.
“We are dealing with our own people,” said Sharif, who was twice prime minister in the 1990s. “We will deal with them very sensibly. And when you have a problem in your own family, you don’t kill your own family. You sit and talk. After all, UK also got the solution of the problem of Ireland. So what’s the harm in conducting negotiations?”
“Obviously what they have been doing for the last eight years has not been working. Even a fool knows that,” Zardari said.
Redefined conflict
The war against the insurgents has to be redefined, Zardari said, as “Pakistan’s war” for a public that has come to resent the conflict as an “American war.” “It should be dealt with by talks and the use of a beefed-up police force rather than the army,” he said.
The US opposed past negotiations because short-term peace deals resulted in the militants’ winning time to fortify themselves.