ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A key figure in Pakistan’s new government told two top U.S. envoys Tuesday that there needs to be a change in President Pervez Musharraf’s policy of using the power of the army against Islamic militants.
The call came as a new prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, took office, closing the book on eight years of military rule.
President Bush phoned Gilani after his swearing-in and invited him to Washington at his convenience. Gilani’s office quoted the new premier as saying Pakistan would “continue to fight terrorism.” But it was clear Pakistan’s civilian rulers are rethinking counterterrorism strategy, amid concern that use of military force against al-Qaeda and the Taliban has provoked a bloody militant backlash.
Partners in the incoming coalition government have said they would negotiate with some militant groups — an approach that has drawn criticism from Washington, the source of about $10 billion in aid to Pakistan since it joined the war on terrorism in 2001.
Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte and Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Richard Boucher held a flurry of meetings with Pakistani leaders Tuesday.
Their first talks were with former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who was ousted in Musharraf’s 1999 coup and is now demanding the president’s resignation.
Sharif said he told the American envoys that there was “no longer a one-man show in Pakistan” and that the new parliament — elected in February polls that dealt a crushing defeat to Musharraf’s allies — would decide after exhaustive debate how Pakistan should approach Islamic extremism.
He lashed out at Musharraf’s U.S.-backed policies, saying they had led to a wave of suicide bombings that killed former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and many others, and argued the security of Pakistan must not be sacrificed to protect other countries.
“It is unacceptable that while giving peace to the world we make our own country a killing field,” he told reporters.
“If America wants to see itself clean of terrorism, we also want our villages and towns not to be bombed,” he said, alluding to recent airstrikes near the Afghan border apparently carried out by U.S. and allied forces.
The U.S. envoys also met with Musharraf, army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and Asif Ali Zardari, Bhutto’s widower and now chief of her party. The envoys made no public comments.
