Musharraf committed to abide by Constitution : US official

Islamabad, Aug 17 (UNI) Pakistan President Gen Pervez Musharraf has given a firm commitment to the United States that he would abide by the Constitution on the issue of his uniform, a senior US official said.

Dawn newspaper quoted US Assistant Secretary of State Richard A Boucher, as saying that the US believed Musharraf's words.

Mr Boucher said that in their wide-ranging talks on Wednesday, President Musharraf also expressed commitment to holding fair and free elections. The US, he pointed out, was providing funds and experts to ensure that.

''We told the Pakistani government to make the whole election process transparent by correcting voters' list,'' he said, adding that the elections would make stable transition from military rule to civilian government.

He suggested the Election Commission of Pakistan to remove present weaknesses in the electoral system , and hold open and credible elections by having in place accurate electoral rolls .

The US was paying for the transparent ballot boxes, he said.

Mr Boucher said he had met opposition leaders and discussed the importance of fair and free elections for establishing a credible democratic system in Pakistan.

He, however, denied that Washington was facilitating any deal between President Musharraf and PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto for a new political set-up.

Asked if it was Secretary of States Condoleezza Rice who advised President Musharraf 'not' to impose emergency, Mr Boucher said he did not like to answer political questions, but added, at the very outset we want to see a smooth transition in Pakistan.

He said, ''We have a relationship in which leaders of the two countries talk freely.'' When it was pointed out that Ms Bhutto did not have a good record of curbing terrorism and extremism, Mr Boucher said: It is not a political issue, it is a national issue, and responsibility to evolve a strategy to deal with these menaces.

He admitted that it was not an easy task to deal with the extremism, it required good governance and lots of concerted efforts especially in the field of education, health and tribal areas development.

'' To deal with violent people is not easy, it requires a comprehensive task, but we will have to make best efforts in the tribal areas of both Pakistan and Afghanistan,'' so that terrorism and extremism could be controlled to a certain level,'' and we see a commitment on the part of Musharraf to deal with this problem.''Mr Boucher said.

He said the United States was providing 750 million dollars for the development of tribal areas, particularly to ensure adequate health and education facilities.

Mr Boucher did not rule out the possibility of unilateral US strikes against Taliban and Al Qaeda men inside Pakistan.

If there was threat to the United States and Pakistan, we would work together against those who were killing both the Americans and Pakistanis, he said.

Asked about the new US legislation against Pakistan, Mr Boucher said the Bush administration would put up a good report about Pakistan in the US Congress because of Pakistan's sacrifices in the war against terrorism.

UNI