I think a more fundamental question is "Can you build partnerships with a factionalized state or group?"

Pakistan is an artifical state composed of four major and many minor ethnic groups slammed together. The groups have a fairly wide spread of what they consider their long term interests.

I would argue that you can have parterships with portions of a nation or group under a circumstance like this, but not with the whole group. The problem is that once you align yourself with one faction, the "with us or against us" mindset enters and you are, de facto, against a portion of the population.

This is why we can have a partnership with Israel, but not Palestine. While there are political factions in Israel, their objectives overlap to a high degree, and allow for internal compromise and collaboration. Palestine, however, is intensely factionalized, and has major players who won't accept internal compromise and collaboration with the others. (in statistical terms, Israel has a much smaller standard deviation than Palestine.)

The use of Predators and other stand off weapons to engage targets in Pakistan is a symptom of an underlying problem. The real problem when dealing with a factionalized entity is their internal divisions, trying to mitigate the underlying sources of the divisions, and develop a perception of common interests.

Or you can just pick a side and accept that you'll have enemies sharpshooting (figuratively and literally) every single thing you do in order to undermine your legitimacy, exploit your internal divisions, sap your political will, and place a drain on your military resources.