US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Friday that the United States opposed any move by President General Pervez Musharraf to impose martial law and Pakistan must proceed with elections next year.
Rice has urged Gen Musharraf to go ahead with the elections planned for January. “I am not going to get into the details of our conversations but I think it would be quite obvious that the US would not be supportive of extra-constitutional means,” she said on a trip to Turkey. “Pakistan needs to prepare for and hold free and fair elections,” she said, adding that she had not spoken to General Musharraf recently.
Concerns that events in Pakistan may take a turn for the worse are rising as terrorist violence escalates and the writ of the government continues to weaken. US policymakers understand that while President Musharraf is both keen and sincere in having Benazir BhuttoÂ’s party join him in a power-sharing arrangement, he has been unable to persuade his party, the Pakistan Muslim League, to fall in line. Certain mixed signals from the president have added to the confusion, especially his recent declaration that he will not abandon the PML.
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