Musharraf's offer to help the United States is considered key because Pakistan borders Afghanistan and has extensive intelligence on that country's Taliban rulers. However, the Pakistani government's support for Washington has stirred intense opposition at home from anti-American Muslim militants.
US Accepts India, Pakistan as Nuclear Powers - Papers
September 25, 2001 By REUTERS http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-attack-india-sanctions.html?searchpv=reuters
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The U.S. decision to lift sanctions on India and Pakistan effectively recognizes the two foes as members of the nuclear club and was driven by self-interest, Indian newspapers said on Tuesday.
President Bush said the sanctions, imposed on the two neighbors after they conducted tit-for-tat nuclear tests in 1998, were no longer in the U.S. national security interest in wake of the deadly air attacks in Washington and New York.
The sanctions were lifted after India and Pakistan pledged to cooperate in Bush's war against terrorism.
"The U.S. is no longer interested in hair-splitting about the nuclear order but about combating the menace of terrorism", the Hindustan Times said in an editorial. "It means the status of India and Pakistan as nascent nuclear powers has been recognized."
The U.S. move to lift sanctions on India had been on the cards amid increasingly warm ties between the two countries which were on opposite sides during the Cold War.
But Washington had given no such signals to Pakistan which it had cold-shouldered, especially since the military coup that brought President Pervez Musharraf to power in 1999.
"When it comes to self-interest, the U.S. will do anything...with breathtaking speed, call it opportunism, call it flexibility", the Times of India said in an editorial.
"The rapidity of the decision now to remove all nuclear-related sanctions against Pakistan...shows how Washington's war against terrorism is rearranging its policy priorities in South Asia", the Indian Express added.