Senior US official to visit Pak next week

Washington, Aug 10: A senior US diplomat will visit Pakistan next week on a previously scheduled trip that comes shortly after the Pakistani President rejected calls to declare a state of emergency, a US official said.

The visit by US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher, the top US diplomat for South Asia, was scheduled for after this week's meeting of Afghan and Pakistani political and tribal leaders, the official said yesterday.

He said its timing was not related to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's decision yesterday against declaring a state of emergency, a step that if taken would probably have delayed Pakistani elections due by the turn of the year.

''Boucher will travel late next week to Pakistan for one of his regular consultations that falls now at a very interesting time,'' said the US official, who spoke on condition that he not be identified because the trip has not been announced publicly.

The official declined to say exactly when Boucher would be in the country or whether he was expected to meet Musharraf or Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, saying that the US diplomat's schedule is not yet finalized.

There have been a series of high-level US visits to Pakistan this year, including by Vice President Dick Cheney, amid US concerns that Pakistan has not done enough to fight Taliban militants on its side of the largely porous Afghan-Pakistani border.

US officials are also increasingly concerned about the political situation in Pakistan, where Musharraf's standing has eroded since he tried to sack the chief justice. The Pakistani Supreme Court delivered a blow to Musharraf on July 20 when it ruled to reinstate the chief justice.

Reuters>