By Arun Kumar, IANS
Washington : US President George W. Bush finally spoke to Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf five days after he imposed emergency rule and asked him to hold elections in January as planned and quit as army chief.
However, officials acknowledged Wednesday that Washington had no option but to continue the flow of aid to Pakistan — which has received close to $10 billion since Sep 11, 2001 — and stick with Musharraf, whom it considers “indispensable”.
“The bottom line is, there’s no question that we Americans have a stake in Pakistan,” said Deputy Secretary of State John D. Negroponte, appearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, even as Bush was telling the media of his first call to Musharraf since the crisis began.
Bush had called for democracy to be restored quickly, for elections to be held as scheduled and for President Musharraf to resign his position as Chief of Army Staff, the second ranking State Department official who has also served as US intelligence chief said.
“But the president also pointed out that President Musharraf has been indispensable in the global war on terror, so indispensable that extremists and radicals have tried to assassinate him multiple times,” he told the committee.
“I just spoke to President Musharraf before I came here. And my message was that we believe strongly in elections, and that you ought to have elections soon, and you need to take off your uniform,” Bush himself said at a joint press conference in Mount Vernon, Virginia, Wednesday.
Bush said he had told the general: “You can’t be the president and the head of the military at the same time”, in “a very frank discussion with him”.
Appearing with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Bush defended Washington’s different reactions to the situation in Myanmar and Pakistan, where the US had the same objective “and that is to promote democracy”.
“There is a difference, however. Pakistan has been on the path to democracy, Burma (Myanmar) hadn’t been on the path to democracy. And it requires different tactics to achieve the common objective,” he said.
Describing the situation in Pakistan as worrisome, Sarkozy said he too like Bush wished elections to take place as speedily as possible. “You cannot combat extremism using the same methods as extremists, and it is very important, it is of the essence that Pakistan organise elections,” Sarkozy said.
At the White House earlier, US national security council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said: “This is not a never-ending process”, adding that Washington expected Musharraf to return “soon” to the path of democracy.
“They need to release the people that they’ve arrested, they need to stop beating people in the streets, they need to restore press freedom and they need to get back on the path to democracy soon — now,” he said in a show of Washington’s toughening stance.
But Negroponte acknowledged Washington was engaged in a balancing act in a delicate situation to meet two objectives: promoting democracy and protecting America’s vital security interests.
It was not an act of hypocrisy as suggested by a couple of committee members, he said, suggesting: “Under President Musharraf, Pakistan has become a more moderate, more prosperous partner, than it has been at some points in its past, with a government that shares many of our most basic strategic imperatives.
“I believe that given the long-term nature of our relationship, it is important that our assistance programmes continue to help the Pakistani people through this difficult current period and solidify our long-term relationship,” the official said.
Seeking Congressional support “in renewing our commitment to long-term partnership with the Pakistani people” Negroponte said: “There is not a mission in the world more deserving of our persistence and considered patience”.
Meanwhile, Musharraf himself reached out to leading Congressmen to blunt some of the criticism from US lawmakers and was immediately rewarded by a degree of support on Capitol Hill.
At the House Committee hearing, Democratic chairman Tom Lantos disclosed that Musharraf had called him Tuesday, “and I find it noteworthy that in this time of crisis he’s seeking a dialogue with both the administration and the Congress”.
His counterpart in the Senate panel, Joseph R. Biden, a Democratic presidential hopeful, said he too had a “very frank and detailed discussion” with Musharraf.
“It is clear to me from our conversation that President Musharraf understands the consequences for his country and for relations with the United States if he does not return Pakistan to the path of democracy,” he stated.