Islamabad, Pakistan – A top U.S. envoy praised President Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s government Wednesday and skirted the issue of his expulsion of a top political rival, taking some heat off the military leader as he struggles for election to a new term.
Soon after Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte’s tribute to Pakistan’s anti-terrorism efforts, the army reported killing up to 40 Islamic militants near the Afghan border.
Musharraf is facing hostility at home for sending Nawaz Sharif, the premier he ousted in a 1999 coup, back into exile hours after he returned Monday. The move, in defiance of a Supreme Court ruling, removed a rival opposed to the president’s plan to seek re- election by mid-October.
Wednesday, authorities barred another opposition leader, Imran Khan, from entering the country’s biggest city, Karachi. Khan said 300 of his supporters were arrested.
Musharraf, who counts the U.S. as his key foreign backer, has also faced growing international pressure in recent months over his failure to curb Taliban and al-Qaeda militants along Pakistan’s frontier with Afghanistan.
After wide-ranging talks in Islamabad, Negroponte praised Pakistan’s efforts in combating militancy in its tribal areas.
“There is no doubt whatsoever of Pakistan’s commitment to restoring and establishing security in that part of the country,” Negroponte said at a news conference.
Pakistani officials said later that army helicopters had killed an estimated 40 insurgents in an assault Wednesday in North Waziristan.
A recent U.S. intelligence estimate concluded a failed peace deal between Pakistan and pro-Taliban militants last year gave space for al-Qaeda to regroup in that lawless region.
