Amid reports that it will prefer an administration which will work with Pervez Musharraf, the US on Thursday said it was not go into the business of "shaping" the decision of the people of Pakistan and was ready to cooperate with the president and "whatever government emerges" there.
"He's (Musharraf) the president of Pakistan. And I would expect that we are going to work with him in whatever... and that we would hope to work with whatever government emerges as a result of this election," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
"I can't predict for you who will comprise that government, who will be the prime minister, who will be the minister of defence, minister of foreign affairs. That's for the Pakistanis to decide, and we're certainly not in any way, shape or form going to try to decide for them, as that is their decision," he asserted.
Amidst reports that Washington will prefer a government that will work with Musharraf, Asif Ali Zardari, the co-chairman of the Pakistan People's Party that has emerged as single largest in the February 18 general elections, on Wednesday met US Ambassador in Pakistan Anne Patterson, but dismissed reports that he gave assurances on working with the president.
McCormack reiterated that the US would encourage all the moderate political parties and those with a "similar or shared vision of a Pakistan that is on the course to greater democratisation".
All such forces have a common enemy in "violent extremists and terrorists" who seek to undermine the progress that Pakistan has made, the spokesman said.
"We hope that this election now gets them back on a course whereby the Pakistani people have confidence in a government that they have elected that will serve their interests, that will broaden political and economic reforms, because ultimately that is the bulwark against encroachment of violent extremists into Pakistani society," he added.
"It's our belief you have to deal with those terror cells, those violent extremists who intend to do harm to civilian populations, whether it's our people or anybody else, sometimes through the use of force with security forces. And we work with Pakistani government in that regard," he said.
McCormack said the US was "fully supportive" of working with and on behalf of the Pakistani people.
The spokesman did not address a query on whether or not Pakistan needed the post of a president as the rules of the game had been changed in the aftermath of the Musharraf coup of 1999.
"How the Pakistanis arrange themselves politically, what powers they endow certain offices with, whether it's the prime minister's office or the president's office or any other office, it's going to be for them to decide," McCormack said.