The intensifying political battle between the pro-American President and the main Opposition Leader is shaping up as a potential crisis for the Obama administration as it tries to focus the Government on fighting al-Qaeda and Taliban insurgency here.

The domestic struggle will almost certainly deflect attention from that fight as President Asif Ali Zardari and his archrival, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, clash and as street protests persist, politicians and analysts said.

It could also result in shifting political alliances, including new opportunities for the religious right that would be inimical to Washington’s interests, and even serve to make the Pakistani military restive for power again if the situation continued to worsen, they said.

The crisis was set off by a Supreme Court ruling on Wednesday that bars Sharif and his brother, Shahbaz, from elected office. The decision was widely interpreted in Pakistan as a raw political manoeuvre engineered by Zardari to diminish the power of the two popular opposition figures.

The Obama administration, which this week hosted the Pakistani foreign minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, and the military chief, Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, in Washington, has had little to say about the unfolding political drama.

The US has backed Zardari as President. But his reputation in Washington would likely suffer as a consequence of his moves against the Sharif brothers, said Talat Masood, a retired army general, who frequently meets with US officials when they come to Pakistan.

“He is deflecting the attention of the whole country to something that is so irrelevant,” said Masood. “He is banking on the United States, but America will only support him up to a point.”

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