LAHORE: The American pressure on General Pervez Musharraf to scrap the state of emergency will reach its climax on Saturday when Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte reaches Islamabad to warn the General either to get in line or face the consequences, before he travels to Lahore to meet former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto who has been placed under house arrest there.
The sources said the United States was uneasy over the rupture of understanding for future power-sharing between Musharraf and Bhutto and this would be a major topic that Negroponte would discuss with the president.
The official said the Americans wanted Musharraf to give Bhutto a level-playing field in which she could win the next polls.
The sources said the US Deputy Secretary of State would be coming from Africa by a special plane and will be landing in Islamabad in the early hours of Saturday.
The sources said on the basis of Negroponte’s visit report, Washington would chalk out its new policy towards Musharraf, though pressure on him would continue as long as he resists accepting the demands.
A slight change is already visible in the US use of phrases. While in the past, the US has been referring to Musharraf when speaking about Pakistan, now it has started talking about the Pakistani people instead of the president.
Negroponte has been ambassador in Latin American countries, as well as to the UN. After taking up the present job, he has been Washington’s point man on Pakistan and has frequently visited the country when it was hit by one grave crisis after another.
