US wants civilian rule: Boucher: Need for free, fair polls stressed
ISLAMABAD, April 5: The US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, Richard Boucher, said on Wednesday that the Bush Administration strongly favoured a civilian rule and a civilian control of military in Pakistan. He said this while answering questions at a press conference organized by the US embassy here on Wednesday.
Acknowledging that Gen Musharraf’s holding of dual offices of president and army chief negated the spirit of democracy, Mr Boucher said: “This indeed is an issue. But how this issue will be addressed by the president, we will have to see.”
He remained evasive on the question whether the US would accept President Musharraf in uniform even after the elections if he continued to hold both offices.
Mr Boucher welcomed the recent appointment of the chief election commissioner and termed it an important step forward. He said the overall process of democracy in Pakistan was very important and a ‘clear goal’ for the US.
Answering different democracy-related questions, he repeatedly emphasized the need for ‘free and fair’ elections and said the US government would support Pakistan in preparing for the democratic process.
Mr Boucher said that the US wanted to see Pakistan emerge as a moderate, modern, democratic Muslim country.
N-DEAL: He said the Indo-US nuclear deal would not trigger a nuclear arms race in the region and remained non-committal on Pakistan’s demand for a ‘package approach’ on the civilian nuclear cooperation.
“We don’t do the same things with India that we do with Pakistan.”
When his attention was drawn to the water disputes Pakistan had with India that limited Pakistan’s dependence on hydel power, he said a mechanism in the form of the Indus Waters Treaty was available for settlement of such disputes.
He underlined that this was the only region to have such a mechanism available to it.
He said there were other sources of energy like gas available to Pakistan that could be explored further.
He said the US had concerns about the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project and expressed support for the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan gas pipeline project.
A.Q. KHAN: Mr Boucher did not give a direct answer when asked if the US was still seeking direct access to Dr A.Q. Khan or was it a closed chapter. “It is an ongoing problem and there is ongoing need for cooperation in the area.”
He rejected the view that the US government was prodding Kabul to give anti-Pakistan statements. He said the US encouraged cooperation and dialogue between both the countries as it wished to promote stability and resolution of common problems.
He said the US was very satisfied with the way Pakistan was dealing with the issue of fighting terrorists and Taliban in the border areas.
On Pakistan-India peace process, he said there had been ‘a lot of important developments’ and ‘creative ideas’ on how to move on tougher issues had been floated.
SAARC: Mr Boucher confirmed that the US was interested in obtaining the observer status at the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation but said it had not so far formally approached the Saarc chair in this regard.
However, he clearly indicated that the US government had sounded the Saarc leaders about its interest in being associated with the regional grouping.
He was confident that the US would succeed in securing the observer status and said that the subject had figured in his discussions at the foreign office here.
When asked why as a non-Asian country, the US was interested in being associated with Saarc, his said: “We are an interested observer and that is the status we are seeking.”
He cited regional trade between South and Central Asia as another reason, saying the US would like to encourage that process.
On President Bush’s recent visit to Pakistan he said it had deepened and broadened the bilateral relationship and in this context mentioned the agreement on initiation of an all-encompassing strategic dialogue, adding the inaugural meeting of the dialogue would be held in Washington in a few weeks.
Agencies add: Mr Boucher stressed Washington’s interest in seeing elections (in Pakistan) next year and an eventual return to civilian rule.
The US official said he had met the leader of the Senate, speaker of the National Assembly and leaders of political parties with an eye to supporting the elections next year.