The United States called yesterday on President Pervez Musharraf to end the state of emergency in Pakistan ahead of upcoming elections, free political prisoners and resume talks with the opposition. In a blunt message to the military ruler, top diplomat John Negroponte said Pakistan's people deserved better than emergency rule, which was "not compatible" with a free and fair vote. The US deputy secretary of state flew to Islamabad amid growing US concern at the situation in Pakistan, a crucial US ally in the "war on terror" whose raging political crisis has rattled nerves in Washington. He met Musharraf and other key officials and also spoke by telephone with opposition leader and former premier Benazir Bhutto.
Negroponte said it was too early to talk of the success or failure of his diplomacy, admitting the situation had "polarised somewhat" with Benazir twice put under house arrest. He urged Musharraf to cancel the emergency, release thousands of political opponents, lawyers and rights activists who have been rounded up and jailed, and lift curbs that have shut down private television news channels. "We do not think that these kind of emergency measures are compatible with the kind of environment that is needed to conduct free and fair elections," he said.
Negroponte said Musharraf repeated his vow to resign as army chief before taking office for a second time as president. But there was no sign of any date for halting the two-week-old emergency, which Musharraf says should stay until general elections by January 9.