US policymakers must keep pressure on President Pervez Musharraf to hold fair elections in Pakistan next month or risk deeper chaos in the nuclear-armed country, an important ally in Washington's anti-terror campaign, experts told Congress on Wednesday.
A House of Representatives panel heard from leading South Asia experts that prospects for free and fair elections in Pakistan on February 18 were doubtful under restrictions imposed late last year by Musharraf.
"Maximally free and fair elections are required for near-term stability," RAND Corporation analyst Christine Fair told the House Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia. "In the short term, the United States should work toward a democratic transition in Pakistan, not merely a democratic patina for President and General Musharraf," she said.
The United States should avoid abrupt moves such as abandoning Musharraf, or cutting off aid to military. But it must not allow him to engineer a fraudulent poll that would anger many Pakistanis, the experts said. Limits on civil rights remain in effect despite a formal end to the crackdown last month.
The United States should use pressure and incentives to prod Musharraf to reinstate the top judges he removed, create an election commission, moderniser voter lists and lift restrictions on political parties and the media, Fair said.