By Xinhua
Washington : The United States reiterated on Monday its support for Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, a key ally in U.S.-led war on terror.
U.S. President George W. Bush “does support President Musharraf for all of the work that he’s done to help us in counter terrorism,” White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters.
“And if you look at what we asked President Musharraf to do, which is to take off the uniform, to set free and fair elections, and to lift the emergency order, he did all of those things,” she noted.
“And so now it will be up to the people of Pakistan to see what their new government will look like. But (Bush) does certainly support him and has continued to,” the spokeswoman said.
The White House reiterated its support for Musharraf when opposition parties in Pakistan called increasingly for him to resign.
“Musharraf should quit as soon as possible. It would be better for him because the people have given their mandate,” Nawaz Sharif, leader of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) said Monday.
Pakistan held general elections on Feb. 18. The election commission of Pakistan has not released the official results of the elections.
However, initial unofficial results show that Pakistan People’s Party emerged as the largest party in the national assembly (NA) while PML-N secured the second largest number of NA seats in the elections.