Visiting U.S. officials meet with Pakistan’s new leaders

Signaling a break with Washington’s longtime dependence on President Pervez Musharraf as the overriding political force in Pakistan, two senior U.S. envoys held talks Tuesday with the country’s new prime minister and other leaders of the erstwhile opposition.

The round of discussions involving Deputy Secretary of State John D. Negroponte and Richard Boucher, the assistant secretary of State for South and Central Asian affairs, coincided with the swearing-in of Prime Minister Yusaf Raza Gillani, which completed a transition to civilian rule.

Gillani leads a ruling coalition solidly arrayed against Musharraf, who administered him the oath of office. In a snub of the president, the ceremony was boycotted by most lawmakers and leaders from Gillani’s party, that of assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

Gillani, confirmed by the newly elected National Assembly a day earlier, had immediately challenged Musharraf by ordering the release from house arrest of judges fired and detained by the Pakistani president last year.

Those included the popular chief justice, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, who had gained folk-hero status during his nearly five months confined to his official residence.

With police barricades around his home removed, Chaudhry spent Tuesday greeting a nonstop parade of well-wishers.

Many carried bouquets; some burst into tears at the sight of him. Milling about the compound were dozens of lawyers, clad in the sober black suits they must wear in court -- and had also worn to take to the streets in protest after the chief justice was fired and put under house arrest by Musharraf.

Lawyer Mehreen Anwar Raja, a newly elected member of the National Assembly, broke her hand in a clash with police months ago at an anti-Musharraf protest. When she and others met with Chaudhry, he inquired warmly whether the injury had healed properly, she said.

“I told him, ‘Now that you are free, any pain is gone,’ ” she said, smiling broadly.

The judges’ fate is an incendiary issue for Musharraf. If they are reinstated, as the new ruling coalition has pledged they will be, many analysts believe he would have little choice but to step aside. The judges were fired as they were preparing to rule on the validity of the president’s election last year by the former and more pliant parliament and by provincial assemblies.

Although the Bush administration has said it looks forward to working with the new government, Musharraf’s perilous position is a source of some anxiety in Washington. Pakistan’s stability is regarded as key to the safety of its nuclear arsenal, and a crucial factor in the confrontation with militants ensconced in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

Musharraf has been a close American ally in the fight against the Taliban and Al Qaeda, but the new ruling coalition has indicated that the government will probably seek negotiations with militant groups.

Negroponte and Boucher met with Musharraf, as visiting U.S. officials have always done, but the roster of consultations was dominated by the new set of players.

The envoys held talks with former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, whose party now rules in concert with Bhutto’s. They also met with Gillani, who received a call from President Bush shortly after his swearing-in, and with Bhutto’s widower, Asif Ali Zardari, who took over leadership of the Pakistan People’s Party after she was assassinated Dec. 27.

In addition, the U.S. diplomats conferred with Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, who became army chief when Musharraf relinquished the post in late November.

Negroponte and Boucher made no public comment. But Sharif, who is rarely reticent, told journalists that he had informed the visiting Americans that Musharraf was not regarded as a legitimate leader.

Declaring that the former general’s “one-man show” had ended, Sharif reiterated plans for a wide-ranging parliamentary review of Pakistan’s strategy toward Islamic militants.

The confrontation with insurgents is an increasingly unpopular cause among Pakistanis, who blame the faceoff for a dramatic increase in suicide bombings.

Such attacks have already killed hundreds of people in Pakistani cities this year.

Musharraf, speaking to reporters after the swearing-in ceremony, reiterated his willingness to work with the new government.

But coalition leaders want to limit the president’s powers, which still include the authority to dissolve and dismiss parliament.

Zardari, however, is seen as less stridently anti-Musharraf than Sharif.

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laura.king@latimes.com