By Syed Saleem Shahzad (www.atimes.com)
KARACHI - United States ambassador to Pakistan Anne W Patterson made a direct appearance on Pakistan's political stage on Monday with a strong call for all political parties to participate in the national elections scheduled for January 8.
She personally met with several politicians, including Nawaz Sharif, and insisted that he take part in the polls. Former premier Sharif, recently returned from years in exile, has said that he,
KARACHI - United States ambassador to Pakistan Anne W Patterson made a direct appearance on Pakistan's political stage on Monday with a strong call for all political parties to participate in the national elections scheduled for January 8.
She personally met with several politicians, including Nawaz Sharif, and insisted that he take part in the polls. Former premier Sharif, recently returned from years in exile, has said that he,
along with some other parties, might boycott the vote.
This open intervention by a senior US diplomat follows prolonged backroom efforts by the George W Bush administration to dictate Pakistan's strategic and domestic political issues, as well as matters related to foreign policy, such as Kashmir, to bring Islamabad in line with the US-led "war on terror" and its regional policy on Iran and Afghanistan for the remaining year or so of Bush's term.
The US envoy's direct role comes as civil society is demanding the reinstatement and release of about 60 judges sacked and detained by President General Pervez Musharraf on November 3 on the eve of a decision by the Supreme Court on the validity of Musharraf's victory in presidential elections. Replacement judges picked by Musharraf upheld the poll results and last week he was sworn in as a civilian president.
There are strong concerns that without an independent judiciary, free and fair elections cannot be held next month. Indeed, all opposition parties suspect that the elections will be "engineered" and former premier Benazir Bhutto even predicted that 25,000 polling stations would return the former ruling Pakistan Muslim League Quaid-i-Azam. Full Story
KARACHI - United States ambassador to Pakistan Anne W Patterson made a direct appearance on Pakistan's political stage on Monday with a strong call for all political parties to participate in the national elections scheduled for January 8.
She personally met with several politicians, including Nawaz Sharif, and insisted that he take part in the polls. Former premier Sharif, recently returned from years in exile, has said that he,
KARACHI - United States ambassador to Pakistan Anne W Patterson made a direct appearance on Pakistan's political stage on Monday with a strong call for all political parties to participate in the national elections scheduled for January 8.
She personally met with several politicians, including Nawaz Sharif, and insisted that he take part in the polls. Former premier Sharif, recently returned from years in exile, has said that he,
along with some other parties, might boycott the vote.
This open intervention by a senior US diplomat follows prolonged backroom efforts by the George W Bush administration to dictate Pakistan's strategic and domestic political issues, as well as matters related to foreign policy, such as Kashmir, to bring Islamabad in line with the US-led "war on terror" and its regional policy on Iran and Afghanistan for the remaining year or so of Bush's term.
The US envoy's direct role comes as civil society is demanding the reinstatement and release of about 60 judges sacked and detained by President General Pervez Musharraf on November 3 on the eve of a decision by the Supreme Court on the validity of Musharraf's victory in presidential elections. Replacement judges picked by Musharraf upheld the poll results and last week he was sworn in as a civilian president.
There are strong concerns that without an independent judiciary, free and fair elections cannot be held next month. Indeed, all opposition parties suspect that the elections will be "engineered" and former premier Benazir Bhutto even predicted that 25,000 polling stations would return the former ruling Pakistan Muslim League Quaid-i-Azam. Full Story
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