US asks Pak to ensure visas for election observers

US officials have asked Pakistan president to ensure foreign observers are granted visas ahead of parliamentary polls on Jan 8.

US officials were forced to intervene with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to ensure foreign election observers are granted visas ahead of parliamentary elections next month, a US spokeswoman said on Saturday.

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Musharraf, facing huge international pressure to hold free and fair polls on Jan 8 and threats of a boycott by opposition parties, seemed surprised when a visiting Congressional delegation as well as Anne W Patterson, the American ambassador to Pakistan, told him that Pakistan embassies abroad were freezing visa requests from foreign election observers.

The US officials also brought the issue to the attention of caretaker Prime Minister Mohammadmian Soomro, said Elizabeth Colton, a US embassy spokeswoman in Islamabad.

"They didn't seem to know about it and said they would rectify it," Colton said, adding the US was preparing to give millions of dollars in aid support for the parliamentary elections.

Under mounting domestic pressure and badgering from his chief foreign sponsor, the Bush administration, Musharraf this week resigned as army chief of staff, was sworn in to a new term as a civilian president, confirmed the election date and indicted that a state of emergency would be lifted in a few weeks.

The 64-year-old former general, who seized power in a coup in 1999, had declared the emergency last month, suspending the constitution, locking up thousands of political opponents and pro-democracy groups, firing dozens of Supreme Court and high court judges and gagging local and international media.

The US and Britain have insisted that Musharraf lift the emergency so that the elections can be held on a level playing field. But the Pakistani leader indicted he would not do so until after a Dec 15 deadline for political parties to either withdraw their candidates or participate.

Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, a bitter political foe of Musharraf, is leading an alliance of more than 30 political parties that plan to boycott the election, a stance reiterated Saturday by Ahsan Iqbal, a spokesman for Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N.

However, prominent opposition figure Benazir Bhutto, another former prime minister and Musharraf's rival, continues to prepare her Pakistan People's Party for the elections despite accusations that the government was already making preparations to rig the vote.

The Bush administration considers Musharraf a critical ally in fighting terrorism and the Taliban and Al- Qaeda, which have regrouped along Pakistan's western border with Afghanistan, and is seeking for stability in the nuclear-armed nation by pushing for a return to democratic rule.