WASHINGTON, March 22: The US administration sees no immediate threat to President Pervez Musharraf but the chairman of a congressional panel urged the administration also to look for alternatives in Pakistan.
The two remarks – one made at a briefing by a senior State Department official and the other by Congressman Gary Ackerman at a congressional hearing – reflect the widening gap between the administration and the Democrat-controlled Congress over US-Pakistan relations.
“I don't think it's too much of a question of (President Musharraf) being toppled or serious unrest in the country,” said a senior State Department official while speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity.
"It doesn't seem that way at the moment. I don't see any signs of that," said the official when asked whether Washington was concerned that growing protest over the suspension of Pakistan’s chief justice could lead to a change.
But Congressman Ackerman, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia, disagreed.
“What we truly need in Pakistan is someone else to talk to,” he told a hearing on the US policy towards Pakistan. “The Administration seems content to only speak with President Musharraf and portrays him as the indispensable man. The truth is, for our goals to be achieved in Pakistan there should be more than one phone number there to dial.”
Mr Ackerman, who is the founding chairman of the India caucus on Capitol Hill, also felt that the unrest over the government action against the chief justice “highlights the fact that the return of Pakistan to democracy is an issue that has slipped in emphasis if not in actual importance.”
He acknowledged that in Pakistan elections are scheduled for later this year or early next year but said that “if past is prologue, these elections will be no freer and no fairer than any others”.
The State Department official, however, indicated the administration’s trust in the Musharraf government, saying that he believes the elections will be held in a fair and peaceful atmosphere.