NJ, FEB 17 - All is not well between the two countries in spite of Pakistan being deemed a major non-NATO ally by the United States.
 
 Commenting on Washington's ties with Islamabad, Paul Wiseman writes in an article published in USA Today that “Musharraf's problems are America's, too. The former Army chief of staff who seized power from an elected prime minister in a 1999 coup is considered a staunch U.S. ally in the war on terror, able to make tough decisions in part because he doesn't have to compromise with politicians. But Musharraf is learning that even a military dictator can't always get what he wants.”
 
 According to Wiseman, President Musharraf is at a political crossroads. "Everywhere Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf turns, there's trouble."
 
 "To the north, unmanned U.S. aircraft have allegedly violated Pakistan's skies in search of al-Qaeda fugitives, firing missiles at suspected terrorist sanctuaries, killing villagers and outraging the Pakistani public.
 
 To the south, rebellious tribal militias battle his soldiers, even firing a couple of rockets at Musharraf himself and wounding one of his top generals.
 
 To the west, pro-Taliban forces are resurgent along the border with Afghanistan.
 
 To the east, arch-rival India is ignoring Musharraf's peace proposals, apparently convinced that time is on its side in the dispute over divided Kashmir. Peace talks are going nowhere. In the interview with Indian TV, Musharraf revealed that he had proposed a form of "joint management" of the territory. The proposal represented a concession from Pakistan. "There is no reply," he said. "That disappoints me."
 
 Wiseman, while predicting that Musharraf may run in presidential elections next year, says that he (Musharraf) has denied he's in trouble. According to Wiseman, he told Indian television last month, "I am the strongest at the moment, politically."
 
 Presenting Musharraf as a non-compromising military soldier albeit a commando in power, Wiseman asserts "He has fought with the democratic people. He has fought with the religious people. He has fought with the Baloch people. He fought with everyone but the army."
 
 In defense of his assertion, Wiseman quotes Amanullah Kanrani, a lawyer and legislator from Balochistan saying "A democratic government is under compulsion to negotiate with the people."
 
 The said article quotes President Musharraf's critics saying his government is making things worse because it doesn't know how to cut deals. "Their approach is unilateral — no dialogue, only bullets," said Babar Awan of the Pakistan People's Party.
 
 While Wiseman holds Musharraf's hand to the fire for all the problems, Frederic Grare, a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment Foundation says it is the institution - the Pakistan Army which is to be blamed.
 
 Grare thinks there is a key myth behind much of the US policy toward Pakistan. That myth is that Pakistan is at risk for takeover by radical Islamists. Mr. Grare is also convinced the Pakistani army is the real problem.
 
 He gives three major policy implications in debunking the myth of a radical takeover:
 
 1. President Musharraf should be pushed to crack down on militants in Kashmir and Afghanistan for fear of causing his overthrow by extremists.
 
 2. Arms sales to Pakistan increase the Pakistani military's leverage to block major internal reforms, and are understood as implicit approval for the military's policies.
 
 3. Invoking the “Islamist threat” as reason to support the military regime contributes to the perception in the Muslim world in general that democracy is something to be applied selectively.
 
 Activists in the U.S. have been rallying critical support for the human rights question. The World Sindhi Institute has been reportedly working with U.S. Representative Tom Tancredo. In a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, U.S. Representative Tom Tancredo (Republican-Colorado.) urged that the issue of Balochistan be raised with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.
 
 Tancredo wants to see an end to the Balochistan problem. He also argues that Pakistani military deployment to Balochistan is diverting critical resources from the hunt for Osama bin Laden.
 
 At his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Richard Boucher, the designated Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs, noted that President Musharraf has made the important decision to move his country away from extremism and towards a future as a modern democracy. “And we fully support him in this undertaking,” he added.
 
 Mr Boucher said that now was the time for Pakistan to move towards democracy and provide better facilities for education and health to its people. The US, he said, was willing to help Pakistan achieve these goals.
 
 What "now was the time for Pakistan to move towards democracy"  could possibly mean is that the US may be looking for a change of guard, pressing Musharraf to hold elections even earlier than thought, formation of a national government, return of two exiled politicians or a combination of all of these options.
 
 The bottom line is, no matter who comes into power or how it is orchestrated, Pakistan's problems will remain America's too - Jihadism, extremism. Thanks to eleven years of the Afghan war followed by another eleven years of West's abandonment of its front-line ally then and now, only a sustained, holistic approach towards empowerment of Pakistan's civic and governmental institutions can yield predictable results with an acceptable error of estimate.