Negroponte will talk bluntly to Musharraf about emergency
Negroponte will talk bluntly to Musharraf about emergency
By Tariq Butt
ISLAMABAD: The US pressure on General Pervez Musharraf to scrap the state of emergency will reach its climax when Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte holds candid talks with the president this week, knowledgeable officials says.
Foreign Office spokesman M Sadiq, however, told The News, "We are not aware of Negroponte's agenda of talks. But we have been rejecting unreasonable comments and remarks made by foreign countries on Pakistan's internal affairs."
He said Pakistan had been interacting with different countries to make them understand the ground realities and the gravity of the situation that evoked the proclamation of emergency.
However, other officials feel that the number two man in the US State Department after Dr Condoleezza Rice is being specially dispatched by the Bush Administration to do a “face-to-face plain talking" with the top Pakistani leader for lifting the emergency before the January parliamentary elections.
One of them told this correspondent that the United States was uneasy over the "rupture of understanding for future power-sharing" between Musharraf and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and this would be a major topic that Negroponte would discuss with the president.
The official said the Americans wanted Musharraf to give Ms Bhutto such a "level-playing field" in which she could win the next polls. "The president would assure Negroponte once again that he would have no hesitation in working with Ms Bhutto if she is successful in the elections."
After initially describing as positive Musharraf's two announcements – the first to hold the general elections by February 15 and then to arrange them in the first week of January after the imposition of emergency – Washington started coming down harsh on the president to compel him to cancel the emergency.
The official pointed out that Musharraf has consistently withstood foreign pressure particularly emanating from America and Europe. "But I think the president may give a date to Negroponte to dispense with the emergency with a view to satisfy him," he said.
However, the official said it was unlikely that Musharraf would oblige the United States or any other foreign country by promptly lifting the emergency. "The whole scheme of the president that was behind the Nov 3 action will collapse, and there will be chaos in the official camp," he said.
He added that in closed-door meetings, Musharraf has repeated that the state of emergency would not be revoked unless the intended objectives were achieved. "He had not given a date even to some senior government leaders in his pre-news conference consultations with them on Sunday."
This is the first time in the recent crisis starting on Nov 3 that a senior American diplomat is flying into Pakistan to talk directly about the situation though President Bush and Condi Rice had held telephonic dialogue with Musharraf.
But the administration officials have been saying that the US ambassador to Islamabad and other American diplomats were doing the main talking with top authorities in Pakistan.
The official said that he thought that on the basis of Negroponte's report, Washington would chalk out its new policy towards Musharraf. Pressure on Musharraf will continue as long as he resists accepting the demands.
A slight change is already visible in the US use of phrases. While in the past, the US has been referring to Musharraf when speaking about Pakistan, now it has started talking about the Pakistani people instead of the president.
During his ambassadorial assignments in Latin America for years, Negroponte, who had also served as US ambassador to the United Nations, had earned "fame" for destabilizing governments there. After taking up the present job, he has been Washington's point man on Pakistan and has frequently visited the country when it was hit by one grave crisis after another.
