WASHINGTON: A new report released here quotes American officials as stating privately that "parts of the Pakistani state may not be fully on board" in the fight against the Taliban.

The report has been published by the Council on Foreign Relations and authored by Barnett A Rubin, who was UN special representative Lakhdar Brahmi’s adviser on Afghanistan and is the author of a number of books on Afghanistan.

The report quotes the American officials as arguing that, given President Pervez Musharraf’s "vulnerability," Washington should stick to a policy of "public support and private pressure" so as to not destabilise his regime.

The author says the approach rests on the belief that stability in Pakistan depends solely on the military, a "self-serving view" promoted by the latter to their American counterparts for decades.

According to Rubin, the US government must recognise that security in Afghanistan hinges on democratising Pakistan. Military domination of the Pakistani state is the problem, not the solution.

Elections will not democratise Pakistan as long as the military continues to control state institutions. The US needs to signal at a high level that it wants to see the withdrawal of military control from Pakistan’s civilian institutions and genuine freedom for political parties, Rubin says.

The report says the US should support Pakistan’s development by immediately lifting restrictions on Pakistani textile imports into the US, as Pakistani business has a strong economic interest in Afghan stabilisation.

Rubin believes that the Bush administration should insist on the Pakistani government’s full co-operation in fighting the Taliban as part of a larger strategy that offers Pakistan benefits other than military equipment.

"Afghanistan will have to respect legitimate Pakistani concerns about the border... Afghanistan also should refrain from relations with Pashtun leaders in Pakistan that give the impression that the government represents Pashtuns," the report says.

Rubin believes that the US should help Afghans realise that Islamabad will not respect a border that Kabul does not recognise.

"In order to launch a long-term programme to stabilise and develop the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region, the United States and the UK should sponsor both official and second-track discussions involving all stakeholders in the border region." "These discussions should ultimately aim to create a context in which Afghanistan can recognise an open border, the tribal territories of Pakistan can be integrated into and receive a full range of services from the Pakistani state, and the border area can become a region for co-operative development rather than insecurity, extremism, and antagonism," the report adds. – Internews