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Journalism of Courage
Pakistan dismissed a call by America’s No. 2 diplomat for embattled President Pervez Musharraf to restore the Constitution and free thousands of political opponents, saying on Sunday that the US envoy brought no new proposals and received no assurances in return.
“This is nothing new,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mohammed Sadiq told the Associated Press, referring to Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte’s warning that Musharraf must end emergency. “The US has been saying this for many days. He has said that same thing.”
Musharraf has insisted he will only lift emergency rule if the security situation improves, and strongly hinted that such a move is unlikely before parliamentary elections.
In an early morning press conference before departing Pakistan on Sunday, Negroponte said he told Musharraf much the same thing, and hoped that the President was listening. “I urged the Government to stop such actions, lift the state of emergency and release all political detainees,” Negroponte told reporters. “Emergency rule is not compatible with free, fair and credible elections.”
Musharraf has not commented publicly since Negroponte’s statement, but Sadiq insisted the Government was taking all necessary steps to hold fair elections.
Despite Musharraf’s apparent intransigence, Negroponte said: “In diplomacy, as you know, we don’t get instant replies when we have these kinds of dialogue… I’m sure the President is seriously considering the exchange we had.”
On Sunday, Negroponte urged Musharraf and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto to restart talks and ease “the atmosphere of brinkmanship and political confrontation”. “If steps were taken by both sides to move back toward the kind of reconciliation discussions they were having recently, we think that would be very positive and could help improve the political environment,” he said.
Though measured in his comments, Negroponte expressed some impatience with Musharraf, saying he hoped to see more steps toward democracy soon. “There remain some other issues that are yet to be considered, or yet to be undertaken,” he said.
