By IRNA,
Islamabad : A group of visiting American lawmakers Tuesday said they are not in Pakistan to lobby on President Pervez Musharraf or the deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.
“We are not lobbying for the President to either retain office or leave the office,” Congressman Adam B. Schiff told a group of journalists at an informal discussion.
US Representative Allyson Y. Schwarts also spoke in the question-answer session after they met President Musharraf, political leaders and members of the parliament.
Asked about the impression that the US legislators are in Pakistan to lobby for the President and to oppose the restoration of the Chief Justice, Congressman Adam B. Schiff said “No that is not why we are here. We certainly had been getting a feed back from of the peopled we met on the subject but we are neutral”.
To another question on the same issue, he said, “We are not here for lobbying on the chief justice. We are not here to lobby on the President.”
To a question about the American support to military dictators in Pakistan, he said, “We are mindful of the perception that many Pakistanis have and not without some reasons that the U.S has not been always consistent in our advocacy of democracy and are very mindful of that.”
He added, “We are very committed to democracy process here in Pakistan. We would like to see democracy here, indefinitely not one that will last period of years and be overthrown for period of years and restored after period of years.”
“We hope that this time goes down in Pakistani history as the time when democracy took firm roots never to be overthrown again,” Mr Schiff said.
He said they also discussed as what will be the impact of the some of the negotiations taking place right now in Pakistan, the effect on the cross border terrorism into Afghanistan.
“These certainly have been subject of our discussions.”