Can Pakistan break with the terrorist network?

Can Pakistan give up its involvement with, and encouragement of, terrorists? The question is exercising the world, but none more than the United States, especially after the killing of Osama bin Laden.

And, the popular view is that India is central in Pakistan's scheme of things, even if we wish it was otherwise. That's what influential mavens believe.

Given its obsession with India, Pakistan would never stop providing sanctuaries to terrorist outfits even if the Kashmir issue is resolved, and the US would never be able to persuade Islamabad to be a full partner in Afghanistan, influential American foreign policy expertshave told US lawmakers.

"There is no way, I would argue, the United States will be able to persuade Pakistan to become a full partner in Afghanistan and to stop providing a sanctuary to the Afghan Taliban, given Islamabad's obsession with India and its view of Afghanistan as a critical source of strategic depth in its struggle with India," Richard Hass of the Council on Foreign Relations said at a Congressional hearing.

"Even a solution to the Kashmir issue would not change this, and there is no solution to Kashmir in the offing, certainly not in a timeframe that would prove relevant," Hass said.

And his view is certainly not a minority one among his peers.