WASHINGTON, May 18: The US believes it is important for Pakistan to ensure the 2007 elections are credible, free and fair, says Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher.

Mr Boucher told a congressional hearing that when he met Pakistan’s new chief election commissioner during his visit to Islamabad last month, he spoke with him about “his independence, his ability to impose the law and ensure a fair election.”

The senior US diplomat, who looks after the South and Central Asian regions for the State Department, said the United States had also taken practical steps to help the chief election commissioner.

“We are supporting him with money. We found aid money to help him with setting things up, getting transparent ballot boxes, all the other kinds of things he wants to do,” he said. “We think that’s a key pillar of having a free election.”

Mr Boucher said the Pakistani government was starting to build the structures, through the election commission, that could help contribute to a free and fair election. President Gen Pervez Musharraf, he said, was “taking the nation in that direction.”

Asked what the Pakistani government had done so far to strengthen democracy in the country, Mr Boucher said President Gen Musharraf had taken steps for “democratic systems-building,” which included strengthening democratic institutions and holding free and fair elections in 2007. “We think that’s the right direction and we want to support him in that.”

The US, he said, also had engaged the Pakistani government and ‘others’ in its efforts to “build the basis for a good election, a free and fair election” next year. “We remind the government and everybody else of the importance that that election be credible, free and fair and widely recognized,” he added.

During his visit to Islamabad, Mr Boucher had also met senior Pakistani politicians and later he had told a briefing in Washington that he wanted to know their views in the context of the 2007 elections.

The US, he said, would like to see Pakistan a more democratic society. Mr Boucher said. When a reporter asked him to explain what he meant by seeking more democracy in Pakistan, Mr Boucher said: “Democracy is not only holding elections. It requires building of institutions.