More worrying news from Pakistan

I know we are all still picking over the Budget, but this story from today’s New York Times strikes me as phenomenally important:

“Pushing deeper into Pakistan, Taliban militants have established effective control of a strategically important district just 70 miles from the capital, Islamabad, officials and residents said Wednesday.

The fall of the district, Buner, did not mean that the Taliban could imminently threaten Islamabad. But it was another indication of the gathering strength of the insurgency and it raised new alarm about the ability of the government to fend off an unrelenting Taliban advance toward the heart of Pakistan.” If Pakistan were to fail, then the terrorist threat that this country faces would increase dramatically—and that is leaving aside the fact that there would be a nuclear armed failed state. But no one seems to have any realistic and achievable ideas for how to stabilise Pakistan.