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Pakistan should focus on security, not Musharraf

Boucher tells press in Islamabad. Sharif blasts remarks of the top US official

AP, Islamabad
Pakistan should focus more on critical issues, such as security problems, rising food costs and power shortages, and less on the future of embattled President Pervez Musharraf, a top US diplomat saidWednesday.
Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher also insisted that the US supports the new ruling coalition which appears at risk of unraveling but expressed only cautious support for its efforts to end militancy along its border with Afghanistan through peace deals.
"Frankly, President Musharraf is not the issue right now," Boucher told reporters who persisted in asking about the future of the longtime US ally.
"This is not the problem that Pakistan faces right now," Boucher said. "The problem that Pakistani people face are that there's dangers of bombings and silicide bombers.
There's rising food prices. There's energy difficulties. Their electricity is being cut off through load shedding."
It was a message Boucher said he tried to get across to Pakistan's new ruling coalition, which is packed with foes of Musharraf who came to power after winning February elections. They have called for the president to step down or face possible, impeachment.
Musharraf is deeply unpopular in Pakistan. A recent poll found 73 percent of Pakistanis had an unfavorable view of the president. Critics also challenge the legitimacy of his re-election in a vote last year by the outgoing Parliament, which was stacked with his supporters.
Yet Boucher's comments could reflect US concern about Pakistan's ability to aid in the fight against terrorism as the new civilian administration grapples with
an economic crisis and its own internal disputes.
PTI adds: In an angry rebuke to the US, former premier Nawaz Sharif yesterday said his country did not need any foreign advise over handling Pervez Musharraf after a top American official contended that the fate of the President was not the most pressing issue confronting Pakistan.
"Pakistan will take decisions on its own. What is to be done with an unconstitutional President is Pakistan's internal matter. There is no need for any foreign advice," Sharif told reporters at Islamabad airport shortly after his arrival here from Lahore yesterday morning.
Sharif, the chief of the PML-N which is a key partner in the ruling coalition led by the Pakistan People's Party, criticized the operation launched by security forces against militants in the tribal region.