Musharraf move distressing, sanctions cannot be lifted: U.S.

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, JUNE 21. The Bush administration has said it is ``distressed'' at the decision of Gen. Pervez Musharraf to declare himself as President of Pakistan; and has made it known that this development will complicate matters.

According to The Washington Post, the visiting Pakistani Foreign Minister, Mr. Abdul Sattar, told administration officials that he was caught by surprise by Gen. Musharraf's move. The Deputy Secretary of State, Mr. Richard Armitage, told Mr. Sattar the administration was ``distressed''.

``There was no heads-up in the meetings until today. And I'm sure it caught him by surprise, the timing at least,'' an administration official told the paper and added that the decision ``doesn't help with regard to one of the key issues on the agenda''.

A senior State Department official was quoted by the paper as saying, ``he told us they would have elections next year. We said that it was very important that you do that for sanctions and other reasons. We were surprised to see this today.'' After their meeting on Tuesday, the Secretary of State, Gen. Colin Powell, said he was ``very encouraged'' by Mr. Sattar's report with respect to the preparations for the elections next year.

The State Department spokesman, Mr. Richard Boucher, wasted no time condemning the latest turn of events. ``... we are very concerned and very disappointed that Pakistan has taken another turn away from democracy rather than, as we had hoped, a step towards democracy,'' he said.

``Gen. Musharraf's actions to dissolve the elected Assemblies and to appoint himself President severely undermine Pakistan's constitutional order. They cast Pakistan as a country ruled by decree rather than by democratic process,'' Mr. Boucher said.

The Bush administration told Islamabad that the sanctions could not be lifted until the President had made a determination that a democratically elected government had been put in place. ``So we urge the Government of Pakistan to move quickly towards genuine restoration of democracy through free and fair national elections and we will watch closely on what steps the government might take,'' the spokesman said.

It was also stressed that Washington had no clue to the things that happened in Islamabad. In fact, Mr. Sattar himself took cover under the argument that he did not know about the developments until the evening of June 20 or several hours after Gen. Musharraf assumed the mantle of civilian presidency.

An unnamed administration official was quoted by Reuters as saying that Gen. Musharraf's decision ``was not a welcome piece of news here. Powell was blindsided.'' The official had gone on to make the point that the development was bound to complicate an already complicated task - of lifting the sanctions.

Undesirable fallout

Over the last three days, Mr. Sattar has been all over the town here talking about the ``unfairness'' of the sanctions against Pakistan and warning that continuation of the punitive measures is leading to undesirable fallouts such as the rise of extremism. The Bush administration is reviewing the entire gamut of sanctions and has indicated that the measures against India will be lifted in the next few months.

Mr. Sattar had already met senior administration players such as the Secretary of State and the National Security Adviser. His argument that eventually there is appreciation that Gen. Musharraf's actions have to do with better governance is unlikely to cut much ice here.

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