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Islamabad: The United States has lost a strong ally with the resignation of President Pervez Musharraf but the civilian government is unlikely to make any major change to his security policy, analysts said on Tuesday.
The former army chief, who had earned the nickname "Busharraf" for his ties with the US President, stepped down on Monday after becoming increasingly unpopular, partly because of his close alliance with the United States.
Musharraf single-handedly steered the country's security policy after he signed up to the US-led war on terrorism following the September 11 attacks. He survived at least two Al Qaida-inspired assassination attempts.
But Musharraf was never able to shake off nagging suspicion Pakistan was not doing all it could to tackle militants, in particular to stop Taliban raids into Afghanistan from remote havens in semi-autonomous ethnic Pashtun areas on the border.
Questions have now been raised about the new government and whether it will be able at least to maintain Musharraf's policy, even though the United States often called upon him to do more.
Shadow of doubt
"With the resignation of President Pervez Musharraf ... the future of the US-Pakistan partnership against terrorism may now be in doubt," US Congressman Duncan Hunter, senior Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, said in a statement.
"The new Pakistani government may or may not prove to be as reliable an ally ... as President Musharraf has been," he said.
But analysts said the new government could at the most introduce cosmetic changes in its policy to win public support for the war on terror.
"I don't think there would be any significant change in the policy because if the past 5 months are anything to go by, I haven't seen any change," said Rustam Shah Mohmand, a former ambassador to Afghanistan.
"It's the same old policy pursued by Musharraf."
A former security chief in the Pashtun tribal areas, Mahmoud Shah, said the militants were not giving up their violent campaign, leaving the government no choice but to press on with Musharraf's policies. "I think the government doesn't have any alternative."
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