Friday, August 18 2006 14:43 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New York: The series of planned terrorist attacks with links to Pakistan has put its President Pervez Musharraf in the most 'serious political binds' of his nearly seven-year tenure, a media report said today (Aug 18, 2006).

There are also simmering concerns in Washington following the rise in the number of terror strikes with links to Pakistan and sharp increase in cross border Taliban attacks in Afghanistan, it said.

These have prompted a renewed debate within the Defense Department about Pakistan, the 'New York Times' said quoting two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The paper quotes a Western diplomat in Pakistan as saying, "Musharraf is in a weaker position than he has been in the past, no doubt about it. There are constraints on him."

"Nearly five years after the September 11 turned Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf into one of Washington's most indispensable allies, he finds himself squeezed from many directions leading to one of the most serious political binds of his nearly seven-year tenure," the paper said.

Those whom the paper spoke to said that in particular, the sharply rising American casualty rate in Afghanistan had increased skepticism among some American military officers about the Pakistani intelligence service's efforts to rein in the Taliban.

"There is an increasing view in the United States that Pakistan isn't very helpful," one researcher involved in the debate, told the paper, referring to frustration among some officers.

"There are people who are really thinking twice about this relationship with Pakistan," h e said.