Pakistan may let U.S. investigators question the wives of Osama bin Laden, a U.S. official said, a decision that could begin to stabilise relations between the prickly allies that have been severely strained by the killing of the al Qaeda leader, writes Reuters' Kamran Haider and Mark Hosenball. uk.reuters.com

Pakistan's powerful military and its spy agency must have been aware Osama bin Laden was hiding in the country and avoided telling critical ally the United States to protect its strategic assets, a leading authority on the army said. Full story by Michael Georgy - uk.reuters.com

@Asi - Many see al Qaeda's acknowledgment of his death as a clear sign that he was killed. But we will put this question to our panel. uk.reuters.com

We'll be starting in a few minutes folks.

Hello everyone

Hi everyone

We also have Farhana Qazi joining us as well

So let's get started

Take it away

Myra, Farhana, why don't we start with the three questions below.

Myra, do you have anything to add to Farhana's answer?

On OBL's death we'll know in any case if he does not show up in any new videos for months

i'd kind of like to get the focus onto the history of U.S. -Pak etc because that is one we know a bit more about. it tells you more about the situation than the current speculation about who knew what when

Myra, do you want to answer the question that just came in from Robert?

On the question of prospects for US withdrawal from Afghanistan, it definitely makes it easier for the Taliban to break with AQ. That was one of the obstacles to a political settlement. That said there are many other obstacles including the fragmented nature of the insurgency; existence of several main groups, including the Haqqani network and HiG, and regional interests.

@Umairpk - Myra, in Pakistan there is a lot of resentment towards the relationship with the USA. Also, the troubled relations with India, means that Pakistan is besieged by many problems at different fronts at the same time. My concern and also the question to you is, is Pakistan heading towards isolation? Given the strategic implications of the OBL raid and killing, will Pakistan manage to control the damage to its credibility and emerge as a normal country?

@robert - there are many conflicting signals coming out of Washington. Prez Obama and Sec State Clinton have been diplomatic, stressing the need to work with Pakistan. Obama in particular praised Pakistan's counter-terrorism cooperation when he announced OBL's death. At the same time we are seeing a lot of leaked stuff in the papers, comments by unnamed officials, which tend to contradict the public position. I'm not sure it is yet the right time to try to read the meaning of those messages coming out of Washington, and certainly not to your point about it being deliberately designed to undermine Pakistan

@umairpk the us-pak relationship has always been very complicated, but to me the main question will be to what extent Washington acts to bolster civilian democracy in Pakistan. Part of the dysfunctional nature of the relationship comes from the fact that the U.S in the past has always supported the military

@Myra and Robert, the Pakistanis resent being told to "do more"; when I talk to senior level Pakistani officials, this is the one thing that they abhor. They will tell you that Pakistan has suffered enough, with more than 30,000 civilians dead and 5,000 armed forces martyred....and so on. This does not dismiss the Pakistani govt from allegedly harboring other groups.