Q+A - Crisis in Pakistan; What's happening this time?

By Zeeshan Haider and Simon Cameron-Moore

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A year after an election returned Pakistan to civilian rule the country has slid back into a political crisis, with street protests erupting in towns and cities across central Punjab province.

The timing, as usual in Pakistan, is awful.

The new U.S. administration is conducting a regional review of its strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan for defeating al Qaeda and the Taliban.

There are worries the Pakistan government is too ready to appease militants, after a peace deal worked out in a northwestern valley earlier this month.

Meantime, the economy has been propped up by the International Monetary Fund, but needs more external support.

The last thing Pakistan needs is a power struggle, so soon after former army chief Pervez Musharraf was forced to resign as president last August.