Bush to meet Musharraf on Nov. 10

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, OCT. 30. The United States President, Mr. George W. Bush, will meet the Pakistan President, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, on the sidelines of the U.N. meeting on November 10. He will have dinner with the General. ``Pakistan has strongly supported the United States in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks. This meeting is an important step in President Bush's efforts to sustain a strong international coalition in the war against terrorism,'' the White House spokesman, Mr. Ari Fleischer, said.

The administration is also saying that Mr. Bush will discuss with the Pakistani leader issues pertaining to the region, including security issues, economic cooperation, human rights and democracy. But the bottomline is that Washington and Islamabad are looking for ways to strengthen bilateral relations.

Although Pakistan is a key member in this coalition of sorts against international terrorism, there is a lot of misgivings here over the fashion in which Islamabad had been participating in this campaign. For instance, Gen. Musharraf has been quite vocal in his criticism of the prolonged air strikes against Afghanistan.

One perception here is that Pakistan is trying to play both sides of the street even if the Bush administration is going out of its way to defend the positions Gen. Musharraf has been taking. Repeatedly, the administration has been emphasising his ``difficult'' position of the Pakistani leader and the tough choices he has had to make. On another plane, Gen. Musharraf and his officials, have been trying to make the distinction between terrorism, terrorists and the so-called freedom movement and freedom-fighters.

There was no doubt that if Gen. Musharraf travelled to New York for the general debate in the U.N., Mr. Bush was going to see him given the current context. In the pre-September 11 scenario, that may not have come about as elaborately as is now being planned. While regional issues will figure in the conversation, the Bush administration is obsessed with the terrorism angle.

The White House, in the run-up to the meeting, has announced that Mr. Bush has formally waived the last of the remaining sanctions against Pakistan. Mr. Bush signed that piece of legislation which allows him to waive the punitive measures until 2003.

``What this does is, it gives the President the flexibility to authorise additional aid to Pakistan,'' a White House spokesman said. The President is said to have signed the legislation on Saturday itself but the White House waited until Monday to announce it. The legislation paves the way for not only economic assistance to Pakistan but also in the transfer of military hardware, the latter being of serious concern to India.

This week, the administration is expected to come out with more in the assistance package to Pakistan generally believed in the range of about $500 million. What is being pointed out is that Washington and Islamabad have already rescheduled about $400 million of a $3 billion bilateral debt; and the administration has already given $100 million in assistance.

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