'No comment on political parleys in Pak'

Washington, Aug 30: The Bush administration has declined to comment on the current round of parleys that President Pervez Musharraf has been having with his political rivals, insisting that this is a process for the Pakistanis to work through on their own.

"I expect we'll have an opportunity to hear from individuals from those parties over the coming days," State Department Deputy Spokesman Tom Casey said yesterday.

Casey said, "I think we're waiting we're looking closely at what is going on in the Pakistani political process, but I think we'd like to be observers rather direct participants at this point." Asked whether Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been in contact over the recent days with either, with Benazir Bhutto or Musharraf or any other leading players, he said, Not she hasn't talked to President Musharraf or anyone from the Pakistani Government in at least in anything I've got on my list that I'm looking at here which goes back about a week.

He said, the primary concern for the United States in Pakistan is that there should be free, credible and transparent elections, that would allow the Pakistani people to have a real and full choice among all the legitimate political actors and parties in that country.

In terms of the conversations that are going on between representatives of President Musharraf and representatives of whether it's former Prime Minister Bhutto or others, Casey said, I'll leave it to them to categorize those discussions and any agreements they've reached.

The State Department Deputy spokesman said,however, there is not surprisingly a lot of politics going on in Pakistan and among Pakistani officials and Pakistani party representatives.

Asked whether officials from the State Department had been in close contact with two former Prime Ministers -- Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif,he said, we maintain contacts with representatives of all the major political parties and factions in Pakistan, just as we would in any other country.

Casey said, I'm sure that we've had discussions, at least with some of the folks in Pakistan, about their views on these discussions. But really this is a process for the Pakistanis to work through on their own.I expect we'll have an opportunity to hear from individuals from those parties over the coming days.

Asked whether the US would like Gen Musharraf to step down, he said,well, we want to see this worked out in a way that allows for a set of free and fair elections and one that's credible in the eyes of the Pakistani people.

UNI