February 20, 2008	Wednesday	Safar 12, 1429

ISLAMABAD, Feb 19: A delegation of three US senators has described the general election as “free, legitimate and credible”, advising the winners and President Pervez Musharraf to help form a coalition government.

“It is very significant that moderate forces won. Now all the political leaders should go for a coalition government in a spirit of compromise,” Sen Joseph R. Biden Jr, chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told a press conference on Tuesday, promising that the entire international community would support the endeavour.

Sen Biden is leading the delegation. Senator John Kerry (Democrat) and Sen Chuck Hagel (Republican) are the other members.

Sen Biden was a Democrat candidate in the forthcoming US presidential election. Sen Kerry lost the US presidential election in 2004.

The US senators claimed after meeting President Musharraf , PML (N) leader Nawaz Sharif and PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari that they had “agreed” to cooperate with each other by having a consensus government in the country.“Now is the time when the political parties should put their house in order to remove instability in the country,” the head of the delegation said.

Sen Kerry said the United States had decided to double Pakistan’s economic assistance to improve infrastructure, healthcare, education and other facilities. “In fact we should tiple it to help build roads, schools and some proper healthcare system,” he said.

He disagreed with a foreign journalist that Pakistan’s military aid should face any cut.

However, the three senators kept rejecting a suggestion that the United States did not want a change and that they were here to lobby for President Musharraf. They said their policies were Pakistan-centric and not personality-centric.

“This is a wrong impression that we are lobbying for Musharraf and this is up to the future parliament whether to impeach the president or not.”

Senator Biden said that Pakistani voters had taken a very important step to take part in the elections and they seemed to have been satisfied with the outcome of the elections, he added.

In reply to a question, the leader of the delegation said that Pakistan needed military assistance to deal with Al Qaeda, Taliban and all kinds of radical elements.

Sen Kerry said that he had seen profound change in Pakistani politics, although he believed it was not a perfect change as 29 people were killed and many injured during the elections.

John Kerry said he had been critical of the sacking of 60 judges of the superior judiciary during his previous meetings with President Musharraf. “We have again raised this issue with Musharraf who told us that the new parliament would take the decision about it,” he said.

Sen Hagel said there was a need for “self-correction” by the political parties for promoting democracy. He said Pakistan needed consensus to solve its various problems.

To another question, Sen Kerry said that the ‘war on terror’ had been questioned by people at large due to mishandling of the issue.

What happened in Guantanamo Bay and Abu Gharib jail in Iraq had made extremists more determined, he said.

Asked whether the coalition government could better deal with the issue of terrorism, Sen Kerry said he did not know about it as the United States was in the midst of its own election and would take decision on many important issues in January 2009.

But he agreed that the fight against terrorism had further stretched and that there was a need to build the capacity of the Pakistani army to deal with the issue.