No pressure from US on Pakistan for democracy

hindustantimes.com: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would not pressure Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf to move towards democracy during her March 17-18 visit to Islamabad, the state department has indicated.

State department spokesman Adam Ereli hedged around the question of whether Secretary Rice would demand Musharraf turn his country progressively towards a democracy as President George W Bush has made it part of his global foreign policy agenda. Rice is traveling in South and East Asia from March 14 to 21.

Asked whether Rice would urge Musharraf to give up his army chief's post, Ereli said: "If the subject comes up, we would reiterate our longstanding policy, which is that movement toward democracy is to be encouraged, is to be welcomed, and that we want to help support Pakistan as it takes the steps to, I think, take the steps to answer the people's call." Link


DB: The US has no need for a 'democratic' cover in Pakistan - Musharraf is sufficiently on-side to render such demands irrelevant to US interests. Why rock the boat? Certainly the democratic aspirations of Pakistan's citizens are not of sufficient concern to justify it. Apparently.