July 05, 2008	Saturday	Rajab 1, 1429

NEW YORK, July 4: A US Congressman has said that the United States should let the Pakistan army combat the resurgent Taliban and Al Qaeda, adding that ‘pressuring the Pakistani government to accept American ground forces is not the answer”.

“Us being on the ground only makes the situation worse,” Congressman Gary Ackerman who returned to United States after two days stay in Pakistan said on Thursday in an interview with New York Newsday.

Mr Ackerman asked the Bush administration to step up equipment supplies and share more intelligence information with the Frontier Corps, the paramilitary force that patrols the treacherous, semiautonomous region between the two countries.

“What we have to do is empower the military,” said Mr Ackerman, chairman of the House Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia. “They need help from us to do the job themselves.”

The American presence inside Pakistan has been limited to CIA officers and military liaisons since 2003 when President George W. Bush agreed to end US involvement on the ground under pressure from the Pakistani government.

The Congressman talked with the region’s residents, tribal leaders and troops as well as Pakistani government officials, including Prime Minister Gilani, but refused to meet President Pervez Musharraf, underscoring the complications of collaborating with the country’s fractured government, the Newsday said.

“I deliberately would not meet with Musharraf,” Mr Ackerman said. “In my opinion he’s been a terrible leader.”