WASHINGTON (AFP) — The White House said Tuesday that it wants to see free and fair elections in Pakistan but kept quiet on a dispute over whether President Pervez Musharraf should first shed his post as army chief.
"What we would like to see is free and fair elections in Pakistan," spokeswoman Dana Perino said amid a row over whether the general should hang up his uniform before he can run for reelection.
"As regards to the Pakistani supreme court looking into this matter of the uniform, that is an internal Pakistani matter that we'll let them debate," said Perino.
Musharraf is seeking re-election by the outgoing parliament in a vote that is due before October 15. If he wins he is expected to take the oath within a month, as the government says his current term expires on November 15.
Musharraf, a former commando, had strongly resisted moves to make him quit the military -- which is the main source of his power and whose loyalty in the fight against Al-Qaeda militants has kept Washington onside.
His lawyer said Tuesday that Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup, would step down as army chief if he wins re-election. Earlier this year, Musharraf said his army uniform had become "part of my skin."
The party of self-exiled opposition leader Benazir Bhutto dismissed the plan as undemocratic and unconstitutional, but did not say if it would affect a proposed power-sharing deal between her and Musharraf.
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