WASHINGTON - The United States reaffirmed its policy of support for civilian-led democracy in crisis-ridden Pakistan, a State Department spokesperson said, when asked if Washington would back the military in case that would bring stability to the country by a coup.
‘You’re taking me into hypotheticals that we’re not going to get into. I think we’ve been absolutely clear about our support for Pakistani democracy’, Victoria Nuland said while responding to a question.
Meanwhile, a leading American newspaper on Thursday also reflected the US position on the deepening crisis in an editorial that supported Pakistan's civilian government and urged the Army and the judiciary not to pose problems for it.
‘Although relations with Pakistan are at an all-time low, the United States should keep engaging the country’s civilian leaders and encouraging its civil society whenever possible’, The New York Times said.
At the Pentagon, a spokesman said the US has neither sought nor received assurances that the Pak Army won't stage a coup. ‘This is a matter for Pakistani officials — their govt leaders, military and civilian — to work out’, the spokesman, Navy Captain John Kirby, told reporters on Wednesday.
‘We support a civilian-led government, we have strong relations with the Pakistani military as well, and we want to see the parties work well together - this is a matter for Pakistan to settle’, Nuland, the State Department spokesperson added.
‘I don't think it's appropriate for the United States to be in the middle of it’, she told reporters during an off camera news conference on Wednesday. But the spokesperson said that the US was monitoring the situation.
Responding to a string of questions on the tension between the Pak Army and the civilian government, Nuland said this is an internal matter of Pakistan. ‘With regard to some of the Press reporting we've seen in recent days it's obviously an internal matter of Pakistan’.
Agencies add: The Pakistan Army will refuse to work with new Defence Secretary Nargis Sethi appointed by Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani after he fired Naeem Khalid Lodhi, a former General and a confidante of Army chief, the New York Times reported quoting a source in the Army.