A shaken US government has recovered at least some of its faith in President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan, believing he still has a chance to promote democracy and defeat terrorism.
Conceding that al Qaeda has turned its focus from Afghanistan to Pakistan, US officials argue that pushing for democracy is the central Asian Muslim nation's best long-term hope of keeping extremists at bay.
To be sure, top officials say, Musharraf has reversed course since he imposed emergency rule November 3, which prompted both a review of US aid to Pakistan and a broader debate on his status as ally in the war on terror. However, they insist, he must pass further tests on the way to and during parliamentary elections he has set for January 8.
"He has been a good ally in the war on terror... (but) it was not a good decision to impose a state of emergency," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told AFP in an exclusive interview last week on Pakistan and other topics.
"He's lifted the state of emergency. He's taken off the (army) uniform. And now I hope that he is going to oversee the return of Pakistan to a civilian-led democratic state," she said.
"They need to have free and fair elections," Rice said, adding that the test does not begin the day of elections but "when opposition can gather" and all media can air views freely.
Rice did not give a direct reply when asked if it was premature to say whether Musharraf had Washington's full confidence.
"We have a good relationship with President Musharraf and our ambassador is in constant contact with him. The key here is that these elections move Pakistan forward on the democratic path. That's the key," Rice stressed. In testimony to Congress on December 6, Richard Boucher, the assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian Affairs, talked of "this long, sometimes troubling and sometimes encouraging chain of events.
"We are encouraged that at the end of this chain will be parliamentary elections ... that we hope will lead to the formation of a civilian-led government under a civilian president for the first time since 1999," he said.
"This would be a significant step forward for Pakistani democracy," Boucher told a Senate foreign relations subcommittee reviewing US assistance to Pakistan that has amounted to about 10 billion dollars since 2001. But Congress last week slapped restrictions on US military aid to Pakistan, creating a rift with George W. Bush's administration on how aggressively to pursue democratic reform there, congressional observers said.
And Freedom House, along with key human rights groups, on Friday published a letter to Rice saying Washington was not doing enough to ensure free and fair elections.
"We remained deeply concerned that you and President Bush have not yet called unequivocally for the restoration of the independent judiciary and the lifting of restrictions on the media," the letter said. US officials are meanwhile worried about inroads the extremists are making in Pakistani territory.
"Al Qaeda right now seems to have turned its face toward Pakistan and attacks on the government and people," Defence Secretary Robert Gates told reporters on Friday.
Harvard University's Hassan Abbas and other analysts have seized on increased references to Pakistan as an ally as a sign Washington was no longer as committed to Musharraf as before, but now say it is warming up to him again.
A US official who asked not to be named told AFP: "The US government sees Pakistan as an ally as well as current President Pervez Musharraf, because a relationship with the nation and the president are not exclusive."
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