Pak could plunge into 'deeper chaos' following US go-slow on drone strikes: Report

US President Barack Obama's landmark policy speech has hinted that the country is shifting its focus from Pakistan, possibly posing a risk for the South Asian country.

Pakistan, perhaps even more than Afghanistan, has been the central focus of America's 12-year war on Islamist militancy. Now, drone strikes are dwindling, the war in Afghanistan is drawing to a close and the battle against Al-Qaeda is receding.

Pakistani leaders who have long demanded an American exit from their region may get their wish, but a broader disengagement is also likely to diminish the financing, prestige and political importance Pakistan held as a crucial player in global counterterrorism efforts, and could upset its internal stability, according to a report in the New York Times.

The diminution of the drone campaign may ease a major point of friction between Pakistan and the West, but the tribal belt in northwestern Pakistan remains a hotbed of Islamist militancy, largely outside government control.

With American combat troops leaving Afghanistan in 2014, and the drone campaign already winding down in Pakistan, analysts fear that unless the Pakistani Army can assert itself conclusively, the tribal region could be plunged into deeper chaos.

Hasan Askari-Rizvi, a Pakistani academic and defense analyst said that if the insurgency increases in Afghanistan, it would spill into Pakistan's tribal areas, where the Taliban will become very confident.

For 12 years, the United States' security-driven policy has shaped power, politics and militancy in Pakistan. That relationship has also fostered resentment, and some Pakistani leaders welcome an American disengagement.

While Pakistan's powerful generals have grown to resent the United States, they also lean on American military aid as a steady source of income.

Still, the shift signaled good news for prime minister-designate Nawaz Sharif, who has vowed to make Pakistan less dependent on the US.

According to experts, the central factor now is the US withdrawal from Afghanistan next year. The US will seek a smooth exit from the conflict; Pakistan will seek to retain influence in its western neighbour, while ensuring the flow of money and military assistance from the West.