New 'sheriff' in Pakistan, US told

Washington's two top policy planners on Pakistan were given a "public dressing down" in Islamabad on Mar. 26 and left in little doubt that the country's involvement in the US's so-called "war against terrorism" was set to change. President Bush phoned Pakistan's new Prime Minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, after he was sworn in the day before to express a willingness to work with him and extend an invitation to visit the White House. Despite the friendly overture, Pakistan's new civilian rulers made it clear in a series of meetings with US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte and Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Richard Boucher that major changes were under way in relations between their country and Washington. "To use an American expression, there is a new sheriff in town," Pakistan People's Party (PPP) foreign policy spokesman Hussain Haqqani said after the two US envoys met PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari. "The Americans have realized that they have perhaps talked with one man [president Pervez Musharraf] for too long." Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, leader of the Pakistan Muslim League (N), which is a major component in the new coalition, was more forthright. Sharif said he told the US envoys there was "no longer a one-man show in Pakistan" and the new parliament -- elected in February polls that dealt a crushing defeat to Musharraf's allies -- would decide how Pakistan should approach Islamic extremism. "I have told [the] US officials that the government wants to see peace in the world but does not want to turn Pakistan into a murder house. Pakistan cannot be made a killing field for the interest of others," he said. "If America wants to see itself clean of terrorism, we also want our villages and towns not to be bombed," he said, alluding to recent airstrikes near the Afghan border apparently carried out by US and allied forces. Commentators in Islamabad said there was no doubt the US envoys had been given "what amounts to a public dressing down" by Sharif. Even the timing of the visit has caused widespread resentment in Islamabad. The two men flew into the capital on day one of the new government, arriving only hours before Gilani was formally sworn in. Sharif described the diplomatic visit as "ham-handed" while English-language newspaper The News, in an editorial headlined "Hands off please, Uncle Sam," said: "Washington must realize it has no moral or political right to attempt to intervene in the internal decisions made within any other country. Its belief that it can eliminate the militants by moving in on a larger scale into Pakistan is dangerous." The US envoys also met Musharraf and army chief Ashfaq Kayani. Many Pakistani analysts say the anti-US feeling sweeping Pakistan -- including among urban, educated people -- is born of years of close collaboration with the Musharraf regime and Washington's refusal to dump the dictator. Negroponte and Boucher were said to be arguing for the new democratic leadership to work with Musharraf rather than force him to quit. "They put all their eggs in one basket. They treated Nawaz Sharif with contempt while he was in exile and disregarded him. They attempted to seduce Benazir Bhutto into supporting Musharraf. When the entire country was in uproar, supporting the reinstatement of the chief justice and the judges, Washington remained silent," local commentator Ahmed Khan said. Meanwhile, Gilani's new government announced it would formally ask the UN to launch an investigation into the assassination of Benazir Bhutto similar to the probe into the killing of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri. The new government believes the inquiry could uncover evidence of the involvement of the former regime's intelligence agencies. Gilani also announced the new parliament would pass a resolution apologizing for the "judicial murder" in April, 1979, of Bhutto's father, the former prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.