By Arun Kumar, IANS
Washington : As a top US diplomat returned after failing to persuade Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf to end his emergency rule, Washington underplayed his defiance touting several “good steps” taken by the general.
Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte briefed President George Bush Monday on his mission over the weekend, but White House declined to say how he reacted to his key ally’s rebuff or if Washington was now planning to try a different tack.
“I’ll let that meeting be private, between the two of them,” spokesperson Dana Perino told reporters after the envoy met Bush. He had “delivered a very clear message (to Musharraf), and we’ll have to continue to monitor the situation as it evolves, to see what happens next.”
“Remember, in diplomacy, when you have this type of outreach, you can’t expect instant results. So we are going to continue to have an open line of communication and dialogue,” she said.
“Of course we remain concerned that there has not been a lifting of the emergency order, Perino said, but described Musharraf’s renewed promise to hold elections and take off his military uniform as “good steps” for the Pakistani people.
The State and Defence Departments were still reviewing aid to Pakistan, Perino said but indicated any cuts were highly unlikely as she spoke of “many steps forward” taken by the military president in the last couple of years to make Pakistan into a “moderate state”.
The US has paid close to $10 billion to Pakistan in assistance, most of it military, since the Sep 11, 2001 terrorist attack. It has budgeted another $845 million in assistance in the fiscal year 2008 started Oct 1.
Asked how long was Bush willing to allow the emergency situation to continue before taking some kind of action, Perino reminded “Pakistan is a sovereign country” and even as he is urging the lifting of the emergency immediately “I don’t have a date to give you”.
However, the State Department took a slightly different line. Musharraf “is a good friend and ally,” spokesman Sean McCormack said, but “we have an investment in the relationship with Pakistan and the Pakistani people,” who, he added, will decide who their leader will be.
Asked if Bush had misjudged Musharraf as a pro-democracy ally, he said the Pakistani leader had carried out political and other reforms before imposing emergency rule Nov 3. And though it had welcomed such reforms, the US has now “taken strong issue with the actions he has taken in declaring the state of emergency,” McCormack said as it undermined US interests.
In response to another question about the options to prevent Pakistani nuclear weapons falling into wrong hands, the official said, “ultimately, the major responsibility for that falls with the Pakistani Government.”
“They have made public comments to the effect that the arsenal is secure, that they have taken a number of different steps to ensure that. We ourselves see no indication to indicate to the contrary that it’s secure,” He said. “We obviously have an interest in seeing that it is secure, however.”
Meanwhile, the New York Times reported Monday that the US was hoping to use Pakistani tribes against Al Qaeda.
A new and classified American military proposal outlines an intensified effort to enlist tribal leaders in the frontier areas of Pakistan in the fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban, as part of a broader effort to bolster Pakistani forces against an expanding militancy, it said citing American military officials.
If adopted, the proposal would join elements of a shift in strategy that would also be likely to expand the presence of American military trainers in Pakistan, directly finance a separate tribal paramilitary force that until now has proved largely ineffective and pay militias that agreed to fight Al Qaeda and foreign extremists, they said.
The proposal is modelled in part on a similar effort by American forces in Anbar Province in Iraq that has been hailed as a great success in fighting foreign insurgents there, the Times said.
But it raises the question of whether such partnerships, to be forged in this case by Pakistani troops backed by the United States, can be made without a significant American military presence in Pakistan. And it is unclear whether enough support can be found among the tribes, some of which are working with Pakistan’s intelligence agency.
One person who had been briefed on the proposal cautioned that whether a significant number of tribal leaders would join an American-backed effort carried out by Pakistani forces was “the $64,000 question,” the Times said.