May 28, 2008	Wednesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 22, 1429

ISLAMABAD, May 27: Visiting US lawmakers say they are not in Pakistan to lobby for President Pervez Musharraf or to try to influence the reinstatement of the deposed judges.

“This is not a correct perception that we are here to lobby for (President) Musharraf to continue seeing him in power,” Congressman Adam B. Schiff said at a press conference after meeting the president and leaders of the PPP and PML-N here on Tuesday.

The two parties, he said, should themselves settle the issue of restoration of the judiciary and the US had nothing to do with it. “We believe in independence of judiciary and hope that this issue is settled soon.”

Congressman Schiff regretted growing scepticism about US policies and agreed people’s apprehensions needed to be removed.

Rejecting a perception that US officials ‘descended’ on Pakistan whenever reinstatement of the deposed judges looked imminent, he said it was one of ‘many conspiracy theories’.

“The delegation is here to forge cooperation between parliaments of the two countries and strengthen democratic institutions in Pakistan.”

“Americans are not visiting Pakistan to help perpetuate Musharraf’s rule,” he said, denying that the US wanted the president to retain his powers to dismiss the government.

Congresswoman Allyson Y. Schwartz said the delegation was here to promote transparency in all institutions and wanted Pakistan to have an independent judiciary.

She said that the delegation had extensively discussed with the president and politicians issues related to the war on terrorism and cross-border infiltration into Afghanistan.

She said Pakistani leaders had assured the delegation of their commitment to root out terrorism and extremism.

She said that irrespective of who won the November 2008 presidential election in the US, her country would support Pakistan to help overcome its economic problems, including that of energy. She agreed that there was an urgent need to set up Reconstruction Opportunities Zones to discourage terrorism.

AP adds: A top US Senator on Tuesday urged Pakistan to quickly restore deposed judges, wading into a subject that has pushed the country’s coalition government to the verge of collapse.

Democratic Senator Russ Feingold, one of several American lawmakers visiting Pakistan, also said it was important for the United States to engage the country’s political parties to make up for the past ‘mistake of relying solely on President Pervez Musharraf’.

“This is a terribly important country for the United States and vice-versa,” Sen Feingold said in an interview. “I’ve indicated to everybody we want to strengthen the relationship between our two countries.”

Sen Feingold, a member of the senate intelligence committee, said he was not trying to side with a particular party. But his take on the situation after talking to several observers and the deposed chief justice of the Supreme Court was that coupling the judges’ return with other matters was not necessary.

“Other reforms may well be appropriate,” he said. “At an absolute minimum – and first – I am calling for these judges to be reinstated. It is a matter of whether the legal system in Pakistan is perceived around the world as one that is based on the rule of law. It’s also one of the most important issues to the people in Pakistan.”

Sen Feingold declined to say whether President Musharraf should go.

“What we don’t want to do is to continue what we were doing before, which is to make our whole policy based on a relationship with Gen (retd) Musharraf,” Sen Feingold said. “That was a mistake. That had a very undemocratic flavour to it.”

The senator, who serves on the Senate foreign relations and judiciary committees, said he was keen on improving the relationship with Pakistan to combat terrorism.

But he said he shared the scepticism in Washington about the new government’s efforts to pursue peace deals with militant groups in areas bordering Afghanistan.