London, Oct 23 : Top Pakistan Opposition leaders have said that the country was heading towards its worst ever crisis, and with the renewed insurgency it was “on the edge”.

“Pakistan is going through the worst crisis of its history,” said to a leaked letter signed by the former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, the main opposition leader in Pakistan.

A similar view is shared by cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, another opposition leader, who says that the political and economic meltdown "is leading to a sort of anarchy in Pakistan". “How does a country collapse?” the former cricketer asked.

“There''s an increasing uncertainty, economic meltdown, more people on the street, inflation rising between 25 and 30 per cent. Then there''s the rupee falling,” The Independent quoted him as saying.

Pakistan is experiencing power cuts that have led to hourly blackouts, a doubling of basic food prices and a currency that has lost a third of its value in the past year, Khan said and added: “The awful thing is there''s no solution in sight – neither in the war on terror nor on the economic side.”

According to the paper, almost every day there are retaliatory attacks against police and soldiers and Western targets. Hundreds of soldiers and an unknown number of civilians are losing their lives. The national parliament rejected the US influence on the government by adopting a resolution last night calling for an “independent” foreign policy and urging dialogue with the extremists.

The military operation against the so-called Pakistan Taliban is concentrated in the largely autonomous tribal areas that border Afghanistan. A total of 120,000 troops and paramilitary forces have been deployed against what senior officers say is a skilled and tenacious enemy. “They do not fight in one place, you cannot fight them in one place. It''s basically guerrilla warfare. The area is mountainous, it''s vast. And everybody carries a gun. It''s the culture,” said Lt Col Haider Baseer, a military spokesman. (ANI)