The administration of US President Barack Obama is reaching out to Nawaz Sharif in hopes to find a way to strengthen the country's government, The New York Times reported late Friday. Citing unnamed administration officials, the newspaper said on its website that because of his ties to Islamists, the US government has long held Nawaz at arm's length.
But now some Obama administration officials say those ties could be useful in helping Zardari's government to confront the challenge from Taliban insurgents, the report said. According to the paper, the US move reflects heightened concern in the Obama administration about the survivability of the Zardari government.
The head of the United States Central Command, General David Petraeus, has said in private meetings in Washington that the Pakistani government is increasingly vulnerable, The Times said. No one in the administration is trying to broker an actual power-sharing agreement between Zardari and Nawaz, the paper noted. But administration officials say Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Richard Holbrooke, the special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, have both urged Zardari and Nawaz to look for ways to work together, The Times said.
OUR MONITORING DESK ADDS: "We told them they're facing a national challenge, and for that, you need bipartisanship," a senior administration official said, according to NYT. "The president's popularity is in the low double digits. Nawaz Sharif is at 83 percent. They need to band together against the militants."
According to the newspaper, Sir Mark Lyall Grant, director of political affairs at the British Foreign Office, was in Washington on Monday for talks with Holbrooke and Hillary on Pakistan, according to American and European officials. The three discussed Nawaz, but no conclusions were reached, a European officials said. "There's certainly no agreement that Nawaz should become Zardari's price minister," the official said, speaking on grounds of anonymity. He said the enmity between the two would make such a situation impossible. But he added: "We need people who have influence over the militancy in Pakistan to calm it down. Who's got influence? The army, yes. And Nawaz, yes."
"For the United States, there's no ambiguity about where the danger lies; it's in the people who are attacking the state," the newspaper quoted Teresita C. Schaffer, a Pakistan expert at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington as saying. She said Nawaz could broaden the appeal of the Zardari government, and his ties to Islamist militants give him added heft right now, "so the US would dearly love to see both of those parties on the same page."