A different language from Pakistan

We'll have to wait to see how much of this is simply a difference in language rather than in policy, but Pakistan's new government is taking shape.

The top State Department officials responsible for the alliance with Pakistan met leaders of the new government on Tuesday, and received what amounted to a public dressing-down from one of them, as well as the first direct indication that the United States relationship with Pakistan would have to change.....

“If America wants to see itself clean of terrorists, we also want that our villages and towns should not be bombed,” he said at a news conference here. Mr. Sharif, a former prime minister, added he was unable to give Mr. Negroponte “a commitment” on fighting terrorism.

The statements by Mr. Sharif, and the cool body language in the televised portions of his encounter with Mr. Negroponte, were just part of the sea change in Pakistan’s domestic politics that is likely to impose new limits on how Washington fights militants within Pakistan’s borders.

The next pertinent question is how the power struggle between Musharraf and the parliament/PM shakes out. Who ends up with the levers of the military/intelligence? (Or who is levered by them?)