The US government should prepare a contingency plan for Pakistan in case the Pervez Musharraf regime falls because of the presence of nuclear weapons in the country, a top Opposition lawmaker has said while warning that the Islamic country was in for "a very rough period".
Democrat Jane Harman, who is in the House Intelligence Panel, also said "more could have been done" to prevent the bombing of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto's motorcade that killed 165 people last week.
"She could have had jammers to prevent the explosives from going off. And Pakistan's in for a very rough period, and so is the world," the Congresswoman from California said on CNN's Late Edition.
Harman said Musharraf was in a weak point and his election, "may not have been the best idea".
"I think the US would be wise -- and I trust we are doing this -- to have contingency plans in the area, especially because should he fall, there are nuclear weapons there," she said.
The Democrat also expressed concern over the situation in Pakistan's tribal areas which are infested by the Taliban and al-Qaeda militants.
"The tribal areas of Pakistan, which he (Musharraf) really has no control over, are now the new staging ground or maybe the old staging ground for al-Qaeda. We know that Westerners are training there. It is truly a worrisome situation," she said.
However, Harman disagreed that Musharraf was taking the requisite steps to deal with terrorism. She termed the Pakistan president's deal with the tribals "a colossal strategic mistake."
"Musharraf puts surviving in power ahead of doing the right thing. And I think it will come back to haunt all of us," Harman said.
"The fact that we have not caught Osama bin Laden and Zawahiri six years after 9/11 means two things -- one, it means we took our eye off the ball and got bogged down in Iraq. Number two, it means that Musharraf has been a very crafty fellow, and has not protected them particularly, but protected himself in a way that made it very hard for us to get the job done," she said.
Republican Congressman Peter Hoekstra, also on the intelligence panel, said the restive tribal region, "is the planning and the training ground for radical jihadists in their worldwide threat to the United States."
"We should be very worried about what's happening in Pakistan. Not that it means that it's on a path to an imminent collapse, but Pakistan is critical in us being successful in taking out and defeating radical Islamists and al-Qaeda," he said.
"You know, the plots that we have seen in the UK, their roots come out of these tribal areas. This is a real threat. We need a strong, stable government in Pakistan that is willing and able to assist us in rooting out this threat," said Hoekstra.
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