August 10, 2007
Emergency Nixed, US Wants Free, Fair Polls in Pakistan By Arun
Kumar
Washington
The United States would not say whether it persuaded Pakistan
President Pervez Musharraf to shelve his plans to declare an
emergency, but has urged its embattled ally to hold free and fair
elections.
"My focus in terms of the domestic scene there is that he have a
free and fair election, and that's what we've been talking to him
about and hopeful they will," President George Bush said at a White
House press conference Thursday.
He too had seen the reports of an emergency declaration, but "I have
seen no such evidence that he's made that decision," he said hours
after officials confirmed that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
had called Musharraf late Wednesday evening amid reports of an
impending emergency.
Bush said he and Musharraf had discussed and agreed on the need to
go after the militants. "I have made it clear to him that I would
expect there to be full cooperation in sharing intelligence and I
believe we've got good intelligence sharing."
"I have reminded him that we share a common enemy - extremists and
radicals who would like to do harm in our respective societies. In
his case, they would like to kill him, and they've tried," he said
in his oft repeated defence of his ally.
"I have indicated to him that the American people would expect there
to be swift action taken if there's actionable intelligence on
high-value targets inside his country," Bush said further tempering
his response to recent suggestions from officials that Washington
may act unilaterally.
Asked what he meant when he said at Camp David 'We'll get the job
done,' Bush clarified, "I said I'm confident that we, both the Paks
and the Americans, will be able to work up a plan based upon
actionable intelligence. We'll bring the top al Qaeda targets to
justice, and I meant what I said."
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack too later declined to say
whether Rice's call to Musharraf had played a role in his change of
mind about imposition of an emergency in Pakistan.
Decisions about Pakistan's political future had to be made by
Pakistanis, he said, when asked whether he was concerned by the
deteriorating security situation in Pakistan. "Clearly there is a
lot of political discussion and political ferment within the
Pakistani political system," said McCormack.
Reports of an impending emergency came Wednesday as Musharraf at the
last minute cancelled his participation at a Bush brokered peace 'jirga'
in Kabul with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and tribal leaders from
the two countries' border region. The Aug 9 jirga to which Musharraf
sent his Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz instead is aimed at
strategising on how to fight the resurgent Taliban and Al Qaeda
militants.
Rice and Musharraf "talked about the ongoing and evolving political
developments in Pakistan. They had a good conversation," McCormack
said without offering any details.
"I'll leave it to Pakistani officials to describe President
Musharraf's thinking and how that thinking may have evolved," he
said when told that some Pakistani officials were saying that the
talk with Rice had influenced President Musharraf not to declare a
state of emergency.
In response to persistent questions about Rice's role, McCormack
parried with Pakistan information minister's "revised and extended"
comments that "there is no plan at this point, for a state of
emergency and that they do plan to hold the elections on a
schedule."
"We have stated in the past we support those elections moving
forward so that you do have free, fair, and credible elections in
which the Pakistani people can express their will as to who will
lead them and that those elections should reflect that will," he
said echoing Bush's comments.
"We have an interest in a Pakistan, as we have said before, that is
on the pathway to greater economic openness and freedom and reform,
greater political openness and freedom and that's the pathway that
President Musharraf took starting in 2001. We fully support that
effort," he said when asked if a stable democratic Pakistan was in
US interest.
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