WASHINGTON, May 16: The US State Department said on Wednesday that there has been no fundamental change in Washington’s assessment about President General Pervez Musharraf or his role in the Pakistani society.

The department’s deputy spokesman Tom Casey made these remarks when asked to comment on earlier statement in Islamabad by a senior US envoy who said that the current political situation had not weakened the Pakistani leader.

When asked to comment on Ambassador Ronald Neumann’s statement, Mr Casey said: “I don’t think our assessment has fundamentally changed about him or his role in the Pakistani society.”

Mr Casey also dispelled the impression that Ambassador Neumann’s visit was linked to the political situation in Pakistan.

“We’re pleased to see that the violence that had occurred in Karachi has stopped,” said the State Department official when asked if the Bush administration was concerned that recent events in Pakistan had weakened President Musharraf.

“The issues that are there in the Pakistani political system are ones that need to be resolved peacefully and through their own legal and constitutional procedures,” he added.

The State Department official noted that Pakistan is scheduled to hold “an important election” this year, adding that “it is … in everyone’s interest to see that Pakistan develops as a moderate (Muslim) country.

Mr Casey said that “everyone” wants Pakistan to see as a country that “continues to be a good ally with the United States in the war on terror.”