Doubt over who's running Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan is in a leaderless drift four months after elections, according to Western diplomats and military officials, politicians and Afghan officials who are increasingly worried that no one is really in charge.

And Pakistan's most popular politician, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, suffered a major setback Monday when a court ruled him ineligible to run in upcoming parliamentary by-elections.

The decision could further destabilize the government.

Anxiety over the lack of leadership and the weakness of the civilian government infuses conversations with analysts, diplomats and Pakistani government officials.

Trouble in tribal areas

The problem is most acute, they say, when dealing with militants in the tribal areas that have become home to the Taliban and al-Qaida.

Although the political parties and the military all seek a breather from the suicide bombings and insurgency of recent years, there are fundamental disagreements over the problem of militancy that they have not begun to address, Pakistani politicians and Western diplomats say.

The confusion is allowing the militants to consolidate their sanctuaries while spreading their tentacles all along the border area, military officials and diplomats warn. It has also complicated policy for the Bush administration, which relied on one man, President Pervez Musharraf, to streamline its anti-terrorism efforts in Pakistan.

If anyone is in charge of security policy in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, Pakistani politicians and Western diplomats say, that remains the military and the premier intelligence agency, which operate with little oversight.

While the new civilian government has been criticized for dealing with the militants, it is the military that is brokering cease-fires and prisoner exchanges with minimum consultation with the government, politicians from the government coalition, diplomats and analysts said.

Officials kept in dark

Politicians in both the provincial and central governments complain they are excluded from negotiations and did not even know of a secret deal struck in February, before the elections.

Since coming to power in February, the fragile coalition government, run by Benazir Bhutto's widower, Asif Ali Zardari, leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party, has been engrossed in internal wrangling over removing Musharraf.

The coalition is barely functioning and just accepting the military's decisions regarding the militants, said Talat Masood, a retired Pakistani general who is a political analyst.

Information from The Associated Press is included in this report.