United States Consul General in Lahore Bryan Hunt has said his country remains committed to supporting free, fair, and credible elections in Pakistan and urges President Pervez Musharraf to restore democracy. He made his comment here on Friday after he met Human Rights Commission of Pakistan Chairperson Asma Jehangir, a US spokesmen said.
Hunt also said they expected President Musharraf to step down as chief of the army staff and begin his promised transition to the civilian democratic rule. "We welcome his statement that he would hold elections by February 15, it was important for the Pakistani people to hear that message," he added.
Hunt went on to say his country was working to strengthen democratic institutions establishing a stable and democratic future for the people of Pakistan. "It [the US] has provided more than US $26 million in bilateral and multilateral programme assistance in Pakistan for voter education, political party development, computerisation of the voting rolls, training of political poll watchers, and domestic and international election observation missions. The last 80,000 of the 430,000 transparent ballot boxes the US and the government of Japan have purchased would be delivered by December 9," he said.
"As of November 20, we plan to have our long-term independent election observers on the ground. We have been offering Pakistani journalists training in how to effectively report elections. We are helping the Election Commission publish the voter list on their website. Our goal is to help Pakistan hold free, fair, and credible elections in which the people can choose their own leaders.