Meanwhile, Pakistan is once more up to its old duplicities and deceptions. Last week came the first sign that Barack Obama’s policy in South Asia could be different to his predecessor’s when Hilary Clinton warned the Pakistani government to focus on the real Taliban threat rather than the supposed threat from India. This shows that the United States could start demanding some returns on the billions of dollars it has poured into Pakistan to help it fight Islamist terrorism. President Obama said there would be no ‘blank cheques’ but so far all we have got is promises of more money for Pakistan and an Af-Pak policy that seems to exclude India.

Mrs Clinton’s remarks were the first sign of reassuring change but no sooner did she make them than Pakistan resorted to deceptions. The Pakistani Prime Minister’s adviser on security, Rehman Malik, called a special meeting of Pakistani senators to show them ‘documentary proof’ of India’s role in funding Pakistani terrorist groups. My Pakistani friends have been telling me for some time of India’s ‘involvement in Baluchistan’ and I have pointed out that if we were involved we would have bumped off monsters like Baitullah Mehsud and Sufi Mohammed. Not promoted them. How can it be in India’s interest to promote Islamist lunatics who should have been packed off a long time ago to those 72 virgins who await them?

If we had a real government we would have taken this chance to show the Americans how Pakistan’s responses are always duplicitous. After Mumbai was attacked and Kasab lived to tell the tale the immediate response from Islamabad was denial. The denials came from Pakistan’s civilian government as much as from the Generals.

... contd.