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ISLAMABAD - United States envoy John Negroponte said yesterday that he had urged Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf to end emergency rule, warning it was "not compatible" with free and fair elections due by early January.
The US Deputy Secretary of State met Musharraf yesterday, the first high-level meeting of a US official with Washington's ally since emergency rule was imposed on November 3.
"Emergency rule is not compatible with free, fair and credible elections," Negroponte told a news conference at the US Embassy. He had also called on Musharraf to release thousands of opposition figures who have been rounded up and imprisoned, and to stick to his word to quit as Army chief.
"We welcome President Musharraf's announcement that elections will take place in January, a commitment he repeated to me yesterday in categorical terms. He also repeated his commitment to retire from his Army post before commencing his second presidential term, and we urge him to do so as soon as possible.
"Recent political actions against protesters, suppression of the media and the arrests of political and human rights leaders, runs directly counter to reforms that have been undertaken in recent years ... I've urged the government of Pakistan to stop such actions, to lift the state of emergency and release all political detainees."
Negroponte said reconciliation between moderate political forces - apparently referring to a public rift between Musharraf and opposition leader Benazir Bhutto - was "very desirable".
The United States had hoped the pair would end up sharing power after the election, but Bhutto has ruled out working with Musharraf.
The New York Times reported that the Bush Administration has spent almost US$100 million ($132.34 million) in the past six years on a classified programme to help Musharraf secure his country's nuclear weapons.
Citing current and former senior administration officials, the newspaper said the aid was buried in secret portions of the federal budget and was used to fund training of Pakistani personnel in the US and construction of a nuclear security training centre in Pakistan which is still far from operational.
"Everything has taken far longer than it should," the Times quoted a former official involved in the programme as saying. "And you are never sure what you really accomplished."
Unrest in Pakistan and questions over Musharraf's staying power have rekindled internal Administration debate over the programme, the newspaper said.
Equipment ranging from helicopters and night-vision goggles to nuclear detection equipment was given to Pakistan to help secure its nuclear material, warheads, and laboratories that were "the site of the worst known case of nuclear proliferation in the atomic age," the paper said.
US officials said they believed the arsenal is safe at present and accept Pakistan's assurances that security has been greatly improved, although Pakistan has often held back on providing details about how or where the equipment is being used.
The secret programme was put in place after the September 11 attacks as Washington debated sharing with Pakistan nuclear protection technology known as "permissive action links", which protects against weapons detonating without proper coding and authorisation, the paper said.
- Reuters
