Musharraf asks debt relief
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Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, making his first White House visit, wants $3 billion in debt relief and other economic help for his country. President Bush is looking for continued Pakistani action against Islamic extremists. Both leaders badly want the freedom of abducted Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, whose kidnapping has been a problem for Musharraf as he tries to convince the world that Pakistan is no center of Islamic extremism. “The cooperation of the Pakistani government and security forces have been very strong and very helpful,” White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. “The president hopes that this matter will be resolved.” In their meeting Wednesday at the White House, Bush and Musharraf will discuss the war on terrorism, possible economic assistance to Pakistan and the U.S. desire to see Pakistan return to a democratic government, Fleischer said. Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup, has pledged parliamentary elections in October. Bush and Musharraf also will talk about the Pearl case, military-to-military cooperation and expanding military exchange programs, Fleischer said. Musharraf has said Pakistan wants to begin making military purchases from the United States. The two also will talk about education, as they did quite extensively during their first meeting in November in New York, Fleischer said. U.S. officials believe that religious schools, or madrasas, in Pakistan that often promote Islamic extremism cropped up because of a lack of alternatives. The United States is considering ways to help Pakistan’s education system, said a senior U.S. official. Musharraf also will seek U.S. support on Kashmir, the disputed Himalayan province causing high tensions between Pakistan and its neighbor and bitter rival, India. But the United States must tread a fine line there, because it also wants good relations with India. The United States would assist the two parties in mediating the Kashmir dispute only if both requested it, the U.S. official said. Tensions over Kashmir have been reduced in recent weeks, the official said, although both countries’ armies remain on high alert at their frontiers. Musharraf has won wide praise from the United States and Bush because of his strong support for the war on terrorism, after a decade of deteriorating relations with the United States and Pakistan support for the Taliban. Musharraf allowed America to use Pakistani air bases, share intelligence and put troops near the Afghanistan border to catch fleeing al-Qaida. To bolster Musharraf’s standing and reward his support since Sept. 11, the United States already has dropped long-standing economic sanctions, committed as much as $600 million in various loans and aid and encouraged the International Monetary Fund to give Pakistan a $135 million loan. Now, Musharraf seeks relief from his country’s $3 billion official debt, plus more U.S. investment and an opening of the huge American market to Pakistani exports, especially textiles. Bush is expected to go at least part-way toward meeting Musharraf’s request for debt relief. But Southern congressmen, out to protect the U.S. clothing industry, bitterly oppose Pakistan’s move to sell more textiles in the United States. |