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WASHINGTON: The United States on Thursday voiced hope that Pakistan would resolve a row centered on its prime minister, which has heated up just as the two nations look to repair an uneasy partnership.
The State Department said that Marc Grossman, the US special envoy visiting Islamabad, would meet Friday with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, who faces removal from office after a contempt conviction by the Supreme Court.
“We do consider this an internal matter,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters.
But she added: “We expect that Pakistan is going to resolve these kinds of issues in a just way and a transparent way that upholds Pakistani laws and its constitution.”
The Supreme Court found Gilani guilty of contempt over his refusal to obey an order to write to the authorities in Switzerland to ask them to restart corruption cases against his ally President Asif Ali Zardari.
Relations between the United States and Pakistan have been in crisis for the past year after a US raid killed Osama bin Laden and a Nato attack near the Afghanistan border killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.
Nuland said that Grossman took up all issues for discussion presented by Pakistan, which has urged an end to US drone strikes in its territory and a formal apology for the troops' killing.
